65: From One Misunderstanding
by cali-chan
Summary: What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.
1. Chapter 1

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 1_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

Hiccup wisely decided to wait fifteen minutes or so after Astrid left before bidding Toothless goodnight and following the path she had taken back to Berk.

It had been a very eventful day for him, and he still couldn't wrap his mind around some of what happened— namely, the giant, cannibalistic lizard that ruled the dragon nest on Helheim's Gate, the fact that someone else now knew he was hiding Toothless, and the fact that Astrid had kissed him (_Astrid_ had kissed him. Astrid had _kissed_ him. Astrid had kissed _him_. He didn't know which part of it to focus on!). It was therefore with a maelstrom of confused/excited/scared/ecstatic thoughts running through his head that he made his way back home.

As he came closer to his destination, the moonlight crept between the few tree trunks that separated him from the clearing where the town of Berk stood, and Hiccup wished for nothing but to crash into bed and sleep the exhaustion off until the next morning. When he saw what was waiting for him at the edge of the forest, however, he realized he should've instead taken the long way home. Come into town from the beach, perhaps. Just walk all the way around the island through the forest. In the dead of night. Where he could get attacked by animals or step on all kinds of hunter's traps.

Yep, that probably would've been the safer option.

He looked up at his father's stern expression and cringed; he didn't know what he'd done wrong this time, but the reaction was instinctual by now. "Uh... what is going on?" he asked, looking past his father's vast form to the two equally formidable forms of Astrid's mother and father, who were standing behind Stoick and throwing him similar unhappy glares.

It was only after a second sweep of the scene that he noticed Astrid was standing off to the side, a few feet behind her parents, her arms around her torso and with a frown on her face, her eyes focusing on the ground at her feet like she was fiercely determined to look everywhere but up. "Is there some kind of party I didn't know about? You should've told me, I'd have—"

Whatever witty quip he was about to make got interrupted as his father grabbed him by the arm and practically started dragging him toward their house, the Hoffersons following close behind.

.

.

.

Astrid was going to _kill_ the Thorston twins. This was all their fault. Thor knew someone should've done it a long time ago— the rest of the villagers would probably thank her for it, anyway.

Her mother knew she and Ruffnut were good friends, so when she failed to make an appearance for dinner last night, she went to Ruff's to ask if the female twin knew where her daughter was. According to Gertrud, Ruffnut had seemed surprised at first to hear that Astrid hadn't come back home yet, telling the older woman that she was probably practicing her axe-throwing and lost track of time.

That's when Tuffnut made his appearance and, as it usually happened when the twins got together and started talking nonsense, they forgot anybody else was around. Tuffnut commented what a coincidence it was that Hiccup had been missing as well, not to be seen since dragon training, in fact, and things just went downhill from there.

"Astrid was pretty pissed after the Goethi's announcement. Maybe she's finally killed him!"

"That would suck. It would've been much funnier to see the nightmare do it instead!"

"Yeah, Astrid knows the whole town is waiting for that, she wouldn't be such a buzz kill. But what else could they possibly be doing together?"

"Maybe they snuck off into the forest to hook up."

There was a pause as the twins looked at each other for a second, and then went "Naaaaaaaah!".

The terrible twosome laughed it off, quick to dismiss the mere idea as ridiculous. But it was too late: the idea had already taken root on Gertrud's mind and would not leave. Without bothering to say anything else to the twins, she hurried to find her husband so they could talk to Stoick and wait for their children to get back to town in order to settle this matter. [1]

So they had. The negotiations still needed to be held, but the agreement itself was very much a certainty now, no matter how many perfectly rational arguments her own daughter presented on the contrary. And oh, there had been arguments. Plenty of them. Arguments screamed through the door Astrid had slammed as she locked herself in her room the moment they came home from the Haddocks' the previous night, and still forcefully volleyed back and forth the next morning during breakfast.

"I just can't understand how you could be so irresponsible!" Gertrud exclaimed as she poured some angry-looking porridge into the bowl she was serving for Astrid. It must be a mom thing, the girl figured, to be able to make even _porridge_ look angry. "I thought we raised you better than that!" She dropped the bowl on the table in front of Astrid with a lot more force than necessary.

"For the thousandth time, Mother," Astrid started, jaw jutting out, picking up the bowl in what she hoped came across as a frustrated manner, because frustrated was how she'd been feeling for the past seven hours, and she wanted her parents to _see_ that. "I've told you already, _nothing happened_ last night! Why can't you just _believe_ me?"

"Because I know how these things go!" Gertrud shot back, not half a second later. "You think I was born yesterday, Astrid? I know what teenagers go off to do in the dark!"

"Of course you know. You think I never figured out that Hack was born five months before your first wedding anniversary?" Astrid retorted, intending to say it under her breath, but it came out much louder. She didn't care. She wasn't about to tolerate that hypocrisy from her parents, treating her like she'd done something _wrong_ when her older brother Hacksaw was clearly not a honey-month baby and nobody batted an eyelash over _that_. How was that fair?

Another inherently "mother" skill of Gertrud's had to be the ability to blissfully ignore any remotely incriminating fact implying her to have been any less than the perfect daughter and role model for her own children. "It's not that I don't like your choices— I'm sure even Hiccup has some good qualities," Astrid glared at her. She may not want to get married to Hiccup, but she didn't like it when people treated him like he was useless. Not anymore, at least. "And he _is_ the son of our Chief, after all. I like that you're aiming high. But you are not a child anymore, Astrid, and you should understand how these things work. I thought you would have more sense than Odin gave a goat and know to do things the proper way!" She deposited a basket of bread on the table in-between her daughter and husband and by Frigga, she managed to make _that_ sound disappointed.

Astrid clenched her hands into fists. "Mom, I don't _want_ to marry Hiccup. I don't want to marry _anyone_ right now! Dad," she turned to her other parent, who had always been of a calmer disposition than his wife, hoping somehow he'd be more amenable to not ruining his daughter's life. "Dad, come on. Hiccup and I are just friends. Nothing _improper_ happened last night. We just lost track of time, I swear! Please tell me there's another way to fix this."

Asvald sighed. "I'm sorry, Astrid. Even if what you say is true— and I'm not taking sides here," he added, before his wife could interject against _him_. He had always tried to be as diplomatic as possible whenever his wife and daughter's tempers flared against the other. "But even _if_ nothing happened last night with you and the Haddock boy, it's too late now. I'm sure by now the entire town knows you were out with the boy until after midnight, and they'll be talking."

"By Thor, if even those Thorston menaces could put it together, this will be the talk of the town in a matter of minutes!" her mother exclaimed, and Astrid itched to scream at her that she was being overdramatic.

"I don't care if they talk!" was Astrid's response, instead. Hadn't she worked her ass off all these years, with her training, and chores, and helping out in town and following every order, to make a name for herself, on her own merits? She'd be damned if she let stupid people who needed some scandal to create some excitement in their bored-out-of-their-skulls lives dictate her own worth.

Unfortunately, her father still had a point. "I care," he said, and signaled to Astrid's mother with a nod of his head. "We care. We can't let rumors taint the honor of our family, Astrid."

She cringed, closing her eyes tightly as she took a deep breath to settle her temper. The honor of their family. Of course he had to bring that up; it was always about honor with the Hoffersons. It was the only argument he knew Astrid could not refute. She sighed. "There are other ways of dealing with a slight on our honor."

"Well, your father can't very well challenge the boy to a fight. He'd snap him like a toothpick!" Gertrud intervened with a wave, like Hiccup was there in their living room and she was gesturing to all of him dismissively. Astrid almost snorted; Hiccup would _hate_ that. She could just imagine the face he'd make if he actually were present in the room.

"And I can't very well demand compensation from our Chief, either," Asvald declared, which once again, made a lot of sense so Astrid couldn't refute it. "Stoick's my friend. I won't do that to him. And say what you want, but I know there's no way that boy could've kept you out there if you didn't want to stay, so I can't in good conscience blame him for this."

_Well, not the boy, but the boy's dragon...?_ she thought but didn't say, because no matter how deep in trouble they were this time, no matter how much she did not want to get married and how there seemed to be no other way out, telling her parents about Toothless was simply not an option. Hiccup would never forgive her if she did. She'd never forgive herself if she did. "Well, you got _that_ right," she muttered under her breath, instead, with a scoff.

Her father gave her a reproachful look, probably as severe an admonishment as she would get from him, and she felt like curling up and turning away from his gaze. As much as she wanted to point fingers at Hiccup, her parents, even the Thorston twins, she knew she only had herself to blame. Her mother was right, she should've known better— not that she was doing anything wrong or indecent, but she should've been more aware of the time, of how it would look if she came home too late from hanging out with Hiccup. Claiming that nothing happened might have flown (no pun intended) when they were kids, but they were fifteen now, and no longer had the benefit of childhood innocence on their side. It was careless of her not to think of that.

Her mother walked out of the room to go attend to the laundry she'd left on the tub earlier that morning, and her father turned to look at her, this time more curious than anything else. "So, what _were_ you two doing in the forest at that hour, anyway?"

Astrid sighed, complying to his question, if only because she was relieved he actually believed her. "Nothing. Just talking. I was... upset that he got chosen to slay the nightmare instead of me..." She saw her father chuckle and knew exactly what he was thinking: "upset" was an understatement. "So I followed him into the forest to demand he tell me how he got so good in the ring." She shrugged. "He managed to calm me down and we just... talked. Lost track of time, that's all."

Her father beamed at her, a bit like he did whenever she told him she won at an axe-throwing tournament, and she didn't fully understand why until he spoke again. "Ah, but see, that's already a sign of good fortune for your future! Communication is one of the most integral parts of a successful marriage."

She narrowed her eyes at her progenitor, feeling very annoyed that he seemed so excited about something she had already repeated countless times she was _not_ happy about. "Right, and that's why you waited until mom left to ask me that."

"Knowing when not to disagree with your wife is also an integral part of a successful marriage," Asvald said with a laugh, as he scooped up the remnants of his porridge with a piece of bread. "I'm sure the boy is smart enough so that part won't be a problem for him."

She shook her head, letting out a frustrated huff as she got up from the table and yanked her bowl away from the table. "Stop turning this into a joke, dad! It's not funny." Just out of spite, she grabbed her father's bowl, which he still wasn't done with yet, and took everything with her to the basin in the back of the room so she could wash off the food residue. "Don't you understand that I just... _can't_ get married? I'm not ready for any of this!"

Her voice shook, not from tears but from the utter resentment at her current circumstance gripping her throat with a tight vice. "It's not about Hiccup, it's about— it's about fairness. I can't believe one stupid misunderstanding is going to dictate my entire future and I have absolutely no say about it. It's not fair. I can't just let this happen to me!"

She realized belatedly that as she spoke, she unintentionally stopped washing the dishes. She heard her father get up from the table behind her and forced herself to spring into action again, rubbing at the bowls angrily because she didn't want to seem like she was waiting to be comforted. Apparently she resumed the washing one second too late, because her father approached her anyway, laying one big, meaty hand on the top of her head. "If I could spare you this, child, I would," he stated, gravely. "This is not the way I ever imagined giving you away to a husband. But that is how things are done according to our traditions, and as Vikings we have to take the hits as they come. It makes us stronger."

Removing his hand from her head, he gave her instead a pat in the back. "And alright, the boy is a bit of a walking disaster, but you could do worse, you know?"

Astrid sighed. Before yesterday, she would've glared at him or rolled her eyes, because Hiccup the Useless was hardly what anyone would call husband material. He was hardly worth even thinking about, which is why she always stayed out of it whenever the other teens would tease him or taunt him. But yesterday, she had seen a different side of Hiccup: his caring, warm, joyful side. The Hiccup who enjoyed the wonders of life, who exuded freedom and curiosity. The Hiccup who would stand up for those he cared about even if it meant putting his own life in danger. And it completely changed the mental image she had of him. She didn't really know how she saw him now— didn't really understand why she kissed him other than as a "thank you" for the most amazing evening of her life— but they were... she could say they were friends, right?

She bit her lip, wishing she could explain all of this to her father, but of course she couldn't. And that made her angry all over again. "I don't know, dad. He's just... he's just Hiccup," she replied, shortly.

She looked up at Asvald only to find him smiling down at her. "Well, I have never known my very driven daughter to ever lose track of anything. So maybe that's a sign from the gods that you can grow to like him, hmm?" He patted her back again with a nod. "Now hurry up with the washing, or we'll be late to meet with Stoick."

Her father left, to oversee that everything was prepared for the upcoming negotiations. Astrid frowned. Yes, the meeting where they would barter away her future to expunge a smirch in her family's honor that didn't even exist. She scraped at the bowls furiously, as if punishing them for what was happening to her, and for the thousandth time wondered how she got into this mess.

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Much like the twins had predicted, several people in town had been disappointed when Stoick announced to the tribe that Hiccup's match against the nightmare had been postponed indefinitely. On the other hand, most had been excited to hear the reason for this was that the Chief was negotiating a wedding. Although some thought it might be a good omen to start a marriage with a triumph (and Hiccup's abilities with the dragons had become the stuff of legend over the past few days), nobody wanted to risk the chance of things going badly and Stoick's only son having to spend his honey-month in bed for all the wrong reasons, so in general the crowd understood the necessity of postponing the match.

Berk was a small village, so they didn't get many weddings each year, and Viking weddings were lively affairs— the people loved them almost as much as Viking funerals [2]. Who in their right mind would turn down a week-long feast? So of course Stoick's announcement was received with cheers and applause [3].

Well, by everyone except the future bride and groom, that is. After the announcement, the two families, plus a few high-ranking men from the tribe to serve as witnesses, moved to the Great Hall to partake in the negotiations. And so for over an hour, Astrid had sat at her parents' side and sulked. She wanted nothing more than to get out of there and maybe throw a few axes around for good measure, but she knew she shouldn't leave. It was important for her to be here. Brides normally weren't included at all in their wedding negotiations, but her parents insisted in her being present. They were trying to make things easier for her, she recognized. Let her have some control, if only in appearance. She couldn't throw that back in their faces, no matter how angry she was [4].

But she was having a hard time staying still. She got up and went to get herself a drink, filling a tankard with water around the same time Stoick stated that the wedding should take place as soon as possible because "winter was almost here, and their reserves were partially depleted from an... unfortunate incident," so the earlier the better if they aimed to restock. She made her way back to the central table but instead of sitting with her parents, she stood next to Hiccup, who was leaning against a wall behind his father and trying really hard to pretend like he didn't notice that everybody in the room was staring at him after that "unfortunate incident" comment.

"Well, that's _one_ way to get out of killing a dragon," she commented in a forced casual tone as she rested her weight against the wall in a similar position to his. She probably should have kept her voice down, but even when they were not arguing Vikings were unnecessarily loud, so it's not like any of the negotiating parties would hear what she was saying anyway.

Hiccup cringed like she'd hit him, and she felt a little guilty; she could've phrased that in a slightly different way. "When I said I'd think of something, this is not what I had in mind," he said earnestly. He sounded as frustrated as she felt. "I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

She shook her head. "It's okay, Hiccup. I don't blame you. This is all one big, stupid misunderstanding, and if only my parents would _believe me_ when I tell them that nothing happened last night..."

Hiccup chuckled humorlessly. "Well, my father doesn't even _listen_ to half of the stuff I tell him, so the award for Parent of the Year goes to..." Astrid rolled her eyes at his sarcasm, but he only let out a resigned breath. "We have to tell them," he stated, this time dead serious.

She didn't have to think twice to understand what he meant, and she didn't agree. "No. That's not an option."

"Astrid, believe me, I've been thinking about this _all night_," he said fervently, and for the first time since they walked into the Great Hall, Astrid looked at him straight in the face. She could now clearly see the dark circles under his eyes and knew that he wasn't exaggerating. She'd gotten very little sleep the previous night herself, but Hiccup looked like he'd spent the time torturing himself. "It's the _only_ way out I can see."

"But you said it yourself," this time she did lower her voice, "they'll kill Toothless. And you're right, they will."

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head sharply. "Yes, but if he stays hidden it will take them a few days to find him, and that gives me time to come up with something else to get him off the hook. On the other hand, once that contract is signed," he pointed to where their parents were now discussing their future living quarters, "we're screwed for life. Or, you know, at least until you divorce me." [5]

_Why would I divorce you?_ The thought rose unbidden in her mind and she bit her lip to keep it from coming out of her mouth. What the hell was she thinking? "What about you, though?" she asked instead. "They'll say you're cavorting with dragons. You could be thrown in prison, or even banished!"

"Yeah, well, maybe that's what has to happen. I was going to run away yesterday anyway, remember?" he pointed out, and of course Astrid remembered. When she first found him in the cove, he'd been muttering something about him leaving. At the moment she hadn't known who he was talking to, but it became obvious soon enough. "Don't worry about it. Being punished is an everyday thing for me. I'm used to being the screw-up."

"Don't say that," she shot back at him, with a frown. She felt that protectiveness again, the one she felt when her mother was underestimating Hiccup that morning. She didn't like people speaking ill of him... not even himself. "Listen to me," she started again, poking him on the chest with her index finger to make sure he was paying attention. "Everything you've learned from Toothless... it's a good thing. It could change things in Berk— it could change _everything_. And you're delusional if you think I'm going to let you go merrily into banishment and leave _me_ with all that responsibility."

She punched him in the arm, just to emphasize her point. "So here's how things are going to work," she continued over the sound of his pained groan. She almost rolled her eyes at his antics. Would that boy ever learn how to take a punch? "Either we both get out of this, or we don't. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am, whatever you say," he muttered, sounding like a soldier being forcibly ordered to do something, but still rubbing the spot on his arm she had hit. Something about how quickly he said it reminded Astrid of her father's words from that morning: _Knowing when not to disagree with your wife is also an integral part of a successful marriage._ She shook her head to rid herself of thoughts of Hiccup as a _husband_, which seemed to be coming up in her mind too often for her liking today.

"That would be the most convenient date, then," Stoick's booming voice pulled them both out of their conversation. "On Frigga's day, two weeks from now." She cringed, and felt Hiccup do the same at her side. Two weeks. That's all that was left of their freedom. [6]

"We need to find a new location," one of the witnesses intervened. "The grove where we usually do weddings got half burnt down in the last dragon raid." And right on cue, everybody turned to look at Hiccup again. The young man suddenly became very interested in a thread that had come loose on the bottom edge of his tunic.

"There's a small cove on the north side of the island, near Raven's Point," Spitelout, Snotlout's father, who was Stoick's second-in-command, intervened. "Could be usable." Once again in unison, Astrid and Hiccup tensed up and turned to look at each other with wide eyes. They couldn't go to the cove, that's where Toothless was! Astrid bit back a curse. It seemed Spitelout had the same uncanny knack as his son for coming up with the worst possible suggestions at the most inopportune times.

"Dad, are you sure a change of location is a good idea?" Hiccup tried to intervene in a hurry, but it was clear to Astrid that he hadn't quite thought of a good argument. "After all, the grove has been our traditional place for weddings for generations—"

"Nonsense, Hiccup," Stoick interrupted straight away and Astrid had to wonder if he'd actually heard what Hiccup said. She knew teenagers complained about their parents routinely, but maybe Hiccup was onto something when he griped about his own. "A half-burnt grove is no place to receive the blessings from the gods. I'm sure they will understand our decision." He turned to Spitelout again. "We will send a party to accompany the Goethi to bless the place. Later in the week, most likely; Bucket has been swearing up and down that we're going to be it by storms soon. Now, unless someone has any objections, we shall discuss the bride-price."

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] As far as I've been able to gather from my (admittedly, very limited) research, Vikings weren't nearly as gung-ho about a bride's virginity as other cultures were. It wasn't unheard of to have teens fooling around before marriage, but even then, if they were caught in the act, the parents of the girl still had the right to ask for compensation for the loss of virtue of their daughter (which was considered an affront to the family's honor, akin to stealing). This compensation could be monetary or, yes, even a duel to the death.

[2] Got this one from an episode of _Dreamworks Dragons_, the TV show based on HTTYD. I still laugh about this bit every time I remember it. xD

[3] Viking wedding feasts could indeed last over a week. It was a sign of status; the longer they lasted and the more bountiful the feast was, the more important the groom was. Hiccup's wedding would've been expected to be the event of the decade, with him being the son of the Chief and all.

[4] Viking maidens were basically considered to be the property of the clan, headed by the clan leader, and as such they didn't usually take part in any kind of negotiations, even for their own marriage. Therefore, Astrid's presence at the negotiations wasn't required. Hiccup, on the other hand, as an adult male, would've been expected to handle the negotiations with Astrid's family on his own, but of course given the circumstances Stoick took the reigns. The bit about the witnesses is also true, usually men from high-standing clans would be present to lend their influence and support to the marriage.

[5] Viking women could indeed divorce their husbands under certain circumstances, which is one of the coolest aspects of Viking culture if you ask me. Because divorce was allowed, it was highly encouraged that the bride be okay with the marriage in the first place, and not be forced against her will. Which is why Hiccup seems so certain that this particular forced marriage will end in divorce anyway.

[6] Frigga (or Frigg, really) is Odin's wife and the nordic goddess of intuition and wisdom. Weddings were held on Fridays ("Frigg's day") in her honor. Weddings were also held outdoors, at groves or similar places which were consecrated to the gods.

Hi, all! I hope you liked this first chapter of FOM. I watch a lot of shows/movies and read a lot of books with teenage protagonists, and it never fails to make me LOL how much freedom these kids get that they really wouldn't if they were real teenagers. Therefore it's not unusual to hear me go "where the heck are these kids' PARENTS?" whenever I see these characters being out at all hours or doing whatever they want without any parental supervision. It doesn't really bug me, I just find it funny, mostly. In HTTYD I only had that feeling once: during Hiccup and Astrid's romantic flight, given that they spent the entire afternoon and well into the evening by themselves in the forest, and no one in town batted an eyelash at it.

It all seemed very innocent to me when I watched the movie, but then I joined the online fandom and realized that they were actually 15 in the movie (instead of 12/13 like I'd previously thought). Suddenly what had seemed so innocent initially, became something adults would've been blowing a gasket over FOR SURE in a real-life setting. And thus this story was born. I know arranged marriage plots have been done to death, but hopefully I'll be able to give it my own twist and make it stand out from the rest somehow.

Anyway, long author's notes are long, sorry. I just wanted to say this story is written in its entirety already, there will be 8 chapters total and I will be publishing a new chapter every Tuesday. If you liked this first installment, please let me know by reviewing! Also if you're interested in reading some snippets from future chapters, be sure to follow me on Twitter (girls_are_weird) and Tumblr (girls-are-weird) as I've been known to post some bits and pieces there.

Be sure to let me know what you thought of this first chapter! Reviews are love. :) Wishing a very happy Christmas to those who celebrate it, happy holidays for everyone who celebrates something different in this part of the year, and a great last few weeks of 2014 in general for all of you! See you next Tuesday.


	2. Chapter 2

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 2_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Author's note 2:** This chapter starts right where the last one left off!

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

There was silence for a minute as Stoick allowed for anyone who wished so to raise any objections, but it was supposed to be more ceremonial than anyone else. He was about to begin speaking again when Spitelout intervened. "Don't take this as an objection, but I'd be remiss, as Stoick's right-hand-man," he pointed out with a puff of his chest, and obviously they all knew where Snotlout got _that_ annoying habit from, "not to make certain that you feel you're making the right choice in uniting your families in this way."

He now had the attention of everyone in the room, some of them looking apprehensive at the fact that he dared speak, and the rest frowning at him for the same reason. It was virtually unheard of for witnesses to raise concerns about a marriage contract. Usually when the arrangement reached this point, the families were ready to go through with the ceremony; it was only due to monetary concerns or disagreements that the negotiations were ever halted. "And why would we not be?" Stoick raised the question, being one of those looking at Spitelout with wariness.

Spitelout gave a half-shrug. "Just wondering if we're giving too much credit to the people spreading these rumors. Seems like too harsh a punishment for something that may or may not have happened." The burly Viking crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, and if Astrid weren't completely sure he was only objecting to this arrangement because he wanted her to marry his own son, she could've kissed him.

"It didn't happen!" Hiccup interjected beside her, and Astrid nodded emphatically to support his claim. "Nothing happened. See, uncle Spitelout is right, this whole thing is completely unnecessary..."

"Marriage is not a punishment!" Astrid's mother exclaimed in indignation.

"It sure sounds like you intend for my family's honor to remain tainted, Spitelout," Astrid's father input, and she could recognize an edge of warning in his tone. However jovial her father might normally be, he, like the rest of the Hofferson clan, took their family honor very seriously, and it was clear he did not find Spitelout's suggestion acceptable.

Spitelout, however, didn't seem to notice he was threading on thin ice. "It's the opposite, Asvald. I'm saying that rumors may be circulating around town, but no one in their right mind would believe such a ridiculous thing really happened." Once again she and Hiccup expressed their agreement. "Berk is a small village, and we all know each other here. From what I've heard from my son, Astrid has always been completely dedicated to perfecting her warrior skills, and Hiccup... well, he's Hiccup. Is anyone really going to believe my nephew _seduced_ this girl into improper relations? Please!"

...And that's as far as their agreement went. "Thank you, uncle, for summing that up," she heard Hiccup mutter under his breath in a deadpan tone. Astrid simply shook her head. Clearly, people in this town did not have one ounce of faith in Hiccup. Not that she _wanted_ them to think Hiccup seduced her, mind you, but it made her angry that everybody thought it was okay to treat him like he was second-rate. No one should be treated that way, no matter how many mistakes they made.

"There's no way to know what every single person in the village thinks about this, so what they believe is irrelevant," Astrid's father argued.

"Come off it, Asvald," Spitelout scoffed. "Do you really want to trap your daughter like this now, when there are such bright prospects out there for her?"

"Watch what you're saying, Spitelout," Stoick warned him, finally having enough of his so-called right-hand-man's deceptive comments. The Chief might (unfairly) consider Hiccup a disappointment most of the time, Astrid figured, but at least it was good to know he wouldn't let anyone talk ill of his son. It was... heartening? Kind of? Not really?

"Marriage is not a trap!" Astrid's mother exclaimed with even more indignation than before. As the witnesses erupted in murmurs, Astrid could see that this whole thing was quickly going to Hel in a hand basket. She just hoped it didn't devolve into a fist fight, though she wouldn't mind smacking a few of these stubborn, stubborn people around a bit.

Before the situation could erupt into a physical confrontation, though, Hiccup rushed closer to the main table, trying to get people to look at him. "No, no, no! Actually, uncle Spitelout makes a good point. Just- everyone, could you please listen? Hey!" It took a bit of waving his arms around, but finally he got everybody's attention. "It really isn't necessary to take this so far. Not- not that I'm saying the affront on your honor shouldn't be addressed, Mr. Hofferson," he said hurriedly to Astrid's father, who looked about to protest again. "But we've told you already that nothing happened last night."

"It's true," Astrid intervened, moving to stand beside Hiccup, where everybody else could see her. If he'd suddenly thought of a plan to get them out of this, there was nothing for her to do but to jump on it. It was better than standing back and doing nothing, which is what Viking tradition would have her do. She was allowed to be present in this meeting and she damn well would make herself heard. She wasn't about to go down without a fight. "There was nothing inappropriate happening, I swear. We were talking and we didn't notice it was so late."

"Yes, and it's all my fault."

_What?_ Astrid snapped her head to the right to look at Hiccup. What did he mean, his fault? Where was he going with this?

She already felt herself start to frown again just as soon as he continued speaking. "I, I- I was feeling nervous about the face-off with the nightmare today," he started, stumbling a bit in the beginning but finding his groove soon enough. "I went into the forest because... actually, I was thinking of running away," he confessed with a resigned shrug. It was the truth, or as close to it as he could admit without revealing Toothless' existence. But she knew it had to be hard for him, because he didn't want his father to be disappointed in him, not when his so-called "prowess" in the ring had finally earned him a taste of what it would be to have Stoick be proud of him.

"And Astrid tracked me down and- and okay, at the beginning she was kind of pissed off at me-" A snort came from the back of the room and Astrid glared suspiciously at her father. "But somehow, I don't know exactly why or how, she changed her mind from seeing me as the bane of her existence." Now Astrid thought _she_ might snort, because the way he put it was pretty much the exact way things had gone in her mind. She remembered thinking that the little twerp was ruining everything for her, and now she couldn't help but recognize that she was being a tad overdramatic. She was her mother's daughter, after all. But it all seemed so long ago now; it had been just the day before, but it felt like an eternity ago.

Hiccup sighed, and lowered his gaze down to look at the wooden table in front of him. "And she... she helped me. She helped me a lot. She probably doesn't know this, but it was thanks to her that I learned... that I can't run away from the big things. There are some things you just... have to face head on."

He raised his eyes to look sideways at her, and she couldn't help but look back at him. It was something of a breathless moment, as his green irises fixed on her face. Had she ever noticed before that his eyes were green? She should've. Maybe she would have, last night when they came back to the cove after their flight, but it was too dark for her to distinguish the color properly.

If he was telling the truth- and the fervor in his expression told her that he was- well, she didn't know if she had really taught him anything during their escapade the night before, or if she'd just helped him unlock a part of himself he didn't know he had in him. She certainly did not teach him to stand up for what he believed in; no, that was all him. And she felt the weight of that, the weight of pleasant surprise and pride, as his gaze met hers.

"It was my fault that we were out so late." His eyes stayed on her for one second too long as he continued speaking, before he looked down again. "It was me, with my problems and my fears, it was late when I finally got it through my head that I should come back home, and she only stayed out so late because she wanted to make sure I would." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "So please, _please_, take this out on me, be mad at _me_, but don't... ruin Astrid's life like this."

"Hiccup, don't-" she started, wanting to tell him that he shouldn't take this all on himself, but she didn't know what to say. Once again he took words she herself had used before (_how_ did he know?), and just to hear them out of his mouth, they sounded so... wrong.

"For the last time, marriage does not ruin people's..." her mother interjected again, but only got so far before Hiccup turned to her lifting both hands in her direction to try and appease her womanly ire.

"Yes, Mrs. Hofferson, you are completely right. Marriage is a wonderful thing, if it's right, and of course any man would be lucky to marry a woman like Astrid," he added, resolutely not looking at her by that point. "But this, happening this way, is not right. This- this doesn't need to happen. She was only being a good person, a good friend. It was my fault. I'll take the responsibility."

Astrid shook her head, but she didn't really know which part of everything he'd just said she was refuting. "Hiccup..." she tried again, her tone somewhat sharper. She couldn't let him do this. What was he thinking, taking the blame for everything? She could've very well left earlier if she'd wanted to! She didn't need him to exculpate her when she didn't ask him to.

He didn't seem to hear her. "I'll make up for any loss of face you feel you have incurred, if you'd like. I- I'll pay any amount you consider fair compensation with my work." He was really getting into his little tirade now, his tone growing more and more exalted as he went on. "I can fix your weapons, work on repairs around the house, even do chores if that's what you need. Hel, I'll even let Mr. Hofferson beat me up, if you feel that's what it takes to restore your family's good reputation."

That last one alarmed her more than anything. "Hiccup, _what are you doing_?" she all but hissed at him, itching to punch him in the arm again. That would be one way to shut him up, at least. And hadn't she _just_ told him either both of them got off or neither of them did? They weren't even properly engaged yet and he was already being a terrible husband!

He only looked at her for half a second before proceeding with his impassioned speech directed at the rest of the occupants of the room. "If there's one thing uncle Spitelout got right, it's that Astrid has a bright future ahead of her." He was so determined; Astrid felt that funny, heavy feeling bubbling in her chest with every word he said. Not that she wasn't angry anymore, because she was... she didn't ask him to do this and he shouldn't have done this. But somehow he made her want to strangle him and simply hang onto his every word at the same time. She didn't know how that was possible.

"She could be a dedicated wife and mother," he continued. "She could be the best, fiercest shieldmaiden Berk has ever seen. [1] She could be all of those combined. She could be anything she wants to be, she... she's amazing. She's an amazing girl." He let out a breath that seemed to have carried him through his entire appeal to his fellow Vikings. He looked up at her parents, and at his father, finally, after trying every argument he had, resigned to leaving the matter in their hands. He only had one last thing to say.

"Please, don't force her to be stuck with _me_ for the rest of her life."

There was silence after that, and she wondered if it was because everyone's throats had gone dry, as hers had. Did he really think that? That he was something she'd be "stuck" to, that he would only weigh her down? All of a sudden she wanted to tell him he shouldn't think that way, that she was glad to have him as a friend. But after that speech, everything she could think of to say sounded silly. Did he... did he truly think she was... amazing?

Hiccup deflated once he finished speaking, and it didn't take long for him to grow uncomfortable and fidgety under the completely astounded eyes of every Viking in the room. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, and by Odin, if he came out with some sort of witty quip about how it was someone else's turn to speak now, Astrid swore she _would_ punch him.

It was Stoick who finally broke the stillness, standing up and clearing his throat. "Son," he started, his tone still tinged with something that sounded to Astrid like disbelief, and maybe... pride? Hiccup had just shown them all that he could command the attention of an entire room of the fiercest Viking warriors, not with a large stature and a booming voice, but with determination and words that made sense. She hoped Stoick could see that. She hoped Hiccup could see that his father saw that.

Hiccup only straightened his back and looked at his father in the eye, ready for any response, but hopeful at the same time. Stoick continued. "I can see that you care about Astrid, that you're trying to do what you think is best for her. But the Hoffersons have stated that they will not demand compensation from us, nor do they wish to settle this matter in battle. Besides, the announcement has already been made. The entire village knows."

Astrid barely heard Stoick's reasons, for it was his expression, rather than his words, which made her come to a realization. There was a softness in the Chief's eyes as he looked at his son, like he'd seen something in Hiccup that triggered both joy and sadness in him. Astrid had never seen him look that way before, and it was such an unusual behavior, that the one phrase was all she heard.

Of course she had known for a while that Hiccup had a crush on her. It was hard not to piece it together from the way he bumbled and babbled whenever he tried to speak to her directly. And it was an everyday thing for her, getting attention from the male teens in Berk. Not that she was conceited, but it was a simple fact. She was pretty, she was smart and capable, a strong warrior, and from a respectable family; those were desirable qualities for a female in their society. But for all of Snotlout's disastrous attempts at flirting with her or Tuffnut's thoughtless innuendo, she had never had anyone admire her for who she _was_ as a person rather than for the qualities that made her a "good catch."

But Hiccup- he'd been willing to take any punishment her family opted to dole out, just to get her out of an arrangement he thought she didn't want. He was willing to take months, maybe years of hard work or even physical harm for this reason, disregarding his own suffering so long as she had her chance to be happy. To save her. Just as he was trying to do for Toothless.

Stoick was right. Hiccup _cared_ for her. _Truly_ cared.

That bubbly feeling made her chest cavity feel tighter than ever.

Hiccup, for his part, heard his father's words loud and clear, and immediately started slumping in defeat. Stoick continued to address him. "I'm sorry, son," the Chief concluded gravely.

The young man ran a hand through his hair, in frustration. "Dad-"

"We shall set the bride-price now," Stoick interrupted him, regaining his more serious composition, before he could raise another argument. "Perhaps it would be better if the two of you went home. We can deal with the financial matters ourselves. We'll call you back for the _handsal_." [2] And before either of them could protest, Stoick had a beefy hand between their shoulder blades and was gently but strictly pushing them toward the Great Hall doors.

.

.

.

"Gobber!" Stoick called out to the smith, who just happened to be walking by, pulling a cart full of weapons Hiccup figured he was delivering back to their owners. After the last (failed) expedition to Helheim's Gate, many people had lost their weapons, needed repairs or sharpening. Hiccup did wonder at one point about Gobber being absent from the negotiations- his father would consider him a trusted witness, for sure- but seeing him now, he was reminded of how busy things were at the forge since the warriors returned.

"Stoick!" Gobber exclaimed as he approached them, pulling the cart up the small hill with much less effort than Hiccup would expect for someone with only one leg. He had both of his, and he always struggled with going up when doing the delivery rounds. But of course, he would. "How did it go?"

"Still going," Hiccup's father replied, pushing Hiccup and Astrid toward Gobber before the smith could ask anything else. "Listen, can you make sure these two make it back home? And I mean their _separate_ homes," he added, narrowing his eyes at the two teens like a warning. Hiccup bit back a groan. He heard Astrid scoff beside him.

"Sure," Gobber replied easily. "I'll drop Astrid off at her house and I'll take Hiccup back with me to the forge, if that's fine with you."

"Works for me," Stoick muttered under his breath before ducking back into the Great Hall to continue with the negotiations, leaving the two teenagers in Gobber's care.

"You've been slacking off on me lately anyway," Gobber said to Hiccup as the three of them started to make their way down the hill. "Too much to do these days. You should be the one doing these delivery rounds, you know," he added, waving his hook at him like a mother would wave a finger at a disobedient child.

Hiccup rolled his eyes at his mentor. "I'm so sorry my being forced into marriage has inconvenienced you, Gobber," he said, in his familiar sardonic tone. "Next time I'll try to screw my life up on a weekend instead, so I don't have to miss work."

Gobber, who clearly was used to his sarcasm, took the comment in stride. "Now, don't be turning this 'round on me, lad," he retorted, making a dismissive motion with his hook. "It's not my fault you went and got caught. That'll teach you to be more discreet about your... dalliances."

"There are no _dalliances_," Hiccup shot back. The retorts were almost automatic by now. Perhaps that's why no one seemed to believe them? He'd have to work on that. "_Nothing_ happened-"

"Right, right," Gobber said, his tone clearly indicating that he didn't believe Hiccup one bit. And then, to his never-ending embarrassment, he gave them both a very obvious _wink_. He saw Astrid take a hand to her face, pressing her fingers to the lids of her eyes with a sigh, and he didn't know if the gesture was one of embarrassment or frustration.

He tried again. "No, really, Gobber, it's the truth-"

"Of course," came Gobber's reply, still in the same sing-songy tone that made Hiccup want to shake him. And another wink. Astrid was now looking at the cliffs on the edge of the island, and Hiccup wouldn't blame her if she was contemplating making a run for them. That was an idea. Sure, the abrupt stop at the end would kill them, but it might be the best way to end this painfully awkward conversation.

Really, could the earth just swallow him now? "Seriously, Gobber, you don't have to do the winky thing-"

"Sure, Hiccup." Another wink, and Hiccup just gave up. It was not worth the energy. "See, I know you kids think us adults have just looked like this forever, but I was wee once too, you know? Never had a lass myself, but I know how these things go. You see someone you like, they smile at you, and you get these urges..."

"Oh gods, he said urges," Hiccup all but squawked. Beside him, Astrid was walking very stiffly, and she was red up to the roots of her hair. Yep, those cliffs were looking like a really good option now...

"...And back then the rules were even more strict, you know? No such thing as dating, either. [3] I mean, what was a young man to do when you couldn't even take a stroll with the one you liked in broad daylight without someone thinking you were thinking of doing funny stuff... Like that one time Hoark asked a girl up to the top of the island. Best view of the sunset in all of Berk, I told 'im..." Gobber seemed to be really into his tale, but Hiccup didn't really want or need to know about Hoark's- or any other adult's- romantic activities during their teens. By Odin, if the word "undies" even dared come out of his mouth, Hiccup swore he would kill something.

By that point Astrid was throwing Hiccup a desperate look, clearly communicating _Do something!_ with her wide blue eyes. He floundered for a few seconds before he was finally hit with an idea. "Oh, uh, Gobber, why don't you let me pull the cart instead, since I was supposed to be doing that anyway? That way you don't have to worry about it and can focus on your... really _awesome_ story you're narrating there," he suggested, trying to add a touch of uppity to his voice.

Astrid shook her head emphatically as soon as she heard that Gobber would continue speaking, but Hiccup tried to reassure her with a look and a nod of the head that he knew what he was doing. Gobber seemed to consider the request. "Alright, but only because I haven't gotten to the part where he got caught in his undies. I really have to have both hands free for that one." Both teens cringed. "Make sure you don't drop anything. Actually, no, Astrid, _you_ make sure he doesn't drop anything."

"Sure, Gobber," Astrid said, almost through her teeth.

"Good." Gobber handed the handle of the cart to Hiccup, and continued speaking. "Now, where was I? Ah, yes, so they go up to the top of the island..." He walked on ahead of the two teens, gesticulating wildly with both arms as he talked.

Hiccup signaled for Astrid to walk slowly so that they would lag a few paces behind the man. "That way he'll see we're still following him, but we'll be far enough back that we won't actually hear what he's saying." Astrid, relieved, let him know she thought it was a good idea. "We can actually kill two birds with one stone this way, because I need to talk to you about," he lowered his voice, "the _cove_, and Gobber can't hear."

She nodded, understanding the need for secrecy. This was something that had to be kept only between them, but they weren't likely to be left alone together in the near future, so this was as private as it was going to get for them. Hiccup continued speaking in a low tone. "Last night, I was thinking of ways to get us out of this- the whole wedding thing- but I was also thinking that if all else failed, I might have to find a way to get Toothless out of the island. And I think I may be able to build him a tail rig that will allow him to fly without me." [4] Keyword being _may_. He already had some schematics running through his head, but he wouldn't know how well they worked until he tried them.

Astrid seemed shocked by this detail. "You can _do_ that? Hiccup, that's amazing!" she exclaimed, her eyebrows raised high under her fringe in her surprise. Her mouth was slightly slack, but she was Astrid Hofferson; on her the expression was beautiful.

From the sudden heat in his cheeks, Hiccup was sure he was blushing. Gods, please don't let him be blushing. "Yeah, well- the thing is, I have to design it and build it. That will take me a good few days on its own, and that's without taking into account that my dad will probably have me swamped with wedding preparations."

That made the girl scoff. "No kidding! Gobber will probably have you make the rings, and most likely my sword and your hammer will fall to you, as well." She started counting with her fingers all the details she figured he would be expected to take on. "You also have to look for an ancestral family sword, and spend time with your dad so he can tell you all the family history behind it." She nodded her head like a thought had just occurred to her. "Oh, and then of course you have to practice _using_ the sword, so you don't end up dooming our future marriage to ruin in front of the entire village..." [5]

He groaned. "Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence!" She gave him a no-nonsense look, clearly stating _Let's be serious, here_ with her eyes. Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Anyway, the problem with all of this is that we have to move Toothless out of the cove as soon as possible, but I don't know any other secluded places we can move him to, and with all of this, I know I won't have the time to look for one."

"I can do it," Astrid said with a nod, immediately understanding what he was asking of her. "I mean, I'm sure I'll have a lot of wedding stuff to do, but at least I don't have to forge anything." Astrid stopped for a second to look in front of them, where Gobber was mimicking what Hiccup could only guess was a gnome doing a jig. He decided he didn't even want to know. Astrid seemed to feel the same way and continued speaking. "I'll look for a place, and then I can move him. I'll let you know where he is so you can set him up with his new tail rig."

He nodded as well, deeming this a good course of action. "Great. Thanks." He paused for a moment, not really sure what else to say. He never really knew what to say to Astrid, and these were hardly normal circumstances. "This means a lot to me, you know," was what he settled for. "You, helping Toothless. Helping me." He shrugged. "You don't have to do it. So... thanks."

She lightly pushed her fringe away from her eyes and looked at him for a second, before fixing her clear blue eyes toward the front. "That's what future wives are for, isn't it?" When the words were out of her mouth she seemed a bit like she hadn't meant to say them, and tried to laugh it off as a joke but her chuckles bounced between them aimlessly until the forced mirth died down. Even he, the expert on self-deprecating humor, had to admit the comment was a bit too awkward.

He felt the common pull of guilt in his gut at the reminder of the mess he'd gotten her into. He looked down at his feet as he walked. "This is weird," he let out, downcast. At her questioning look, he elaborated. "Us, talking about our future marriage. I mean, just... our future marriage. There's three words I never thought I'd ever say."

She wrapped her arms around herself. "It's no weirder than us having a conversation about where best to hide a dragon in the forest," she pointed out. And as usual, she was right. He was glad they were keeping this dialogue secret, because if anyone else were to listen in- and didn't immediately demand him banished for treason- surely this conversation would sound absolutely ludicrous to them.

He conceded the point with a lean of his head and a wave of his hand. "True." The irony of the situation struck him and he couldn't help but snort. "It's so stupid. If any other Viking had to hide a pet from his or her parents, it would probably be something like a cat, or... I don't know, an orphaned... piglet or something. But me? No, I end up with a dragon." He shook his head. "The gods must be having a laugh, watching all this."

She nudged his shoulder with hers- because, yes, they _were_ walking that close to each other- and he tried really hard not to shiver. "Well, you've never been like every other Viking," she said, with a small smile on her face, and it almost stopped his feet from moving.

He was no stranger to comments such as that one. It had been a constant in his life: there was everybody else, and then there was him. Two separate entities, which did not fit together. But all his life he'd wanted nothing but to be one of _them_, and it was repeatedly laid down on him that such a thing was simply not possible. And whenever the phrase would pop up, be it himself saying it, or Gobber, or Snotlout, or his own father, it was always a source of pain, of dissatisfaction.

But to hear it come out of Astrid's lips, in that warm tone and framed with that beautiful smile, it made him feel like being different was not such a bad thing after all. That maybe something good could come out of it. That maybe it was something he could be... proud of. It was nothing short of mind blowing.

"And I wouldn't call it stupid, necessarily. A bit crazy, maybe..."

He was aware that he was gaping at her, and in him, he was sure it was a thoroughly unattractive expression. He was just about to say something, anything, when Gobber's voice got both their attentions. "Oy! What are you two chattering about back there?" the man yelled from where he was standing, a few feet ahead of them.

Hiccup shook himself out of his Astrid-induced stupor and tried his best to give his mentor a coherent excuse. "Nothing. Just. Um. Uh... y'know. Wedding. Wedding... stuff." Huh. Did he say coherent? Not his best attempt. Story of his life; that was his brain on Astrid.

Gobber looked at him and for a second Hiccup thought they were in for another round of winks, but the smith instead narrowed his eyes at the pair. "Sure," he said, stretching the syllable enough to make it obvious that he didn't believe that excuse one bit. But he didn't comment further and Hiccup concluded he probably thought they were planning a "dalliance" of some sort. Surely his reaction would've been different if he had any inkling of their _real_ topic of conversation.

"Oh," he heard Astrid say, and he turned to look at her, curious. "We're at my house already," she added, pointing to the cabin they were now standing in front of. Hiccup probably should've noticed that before, as Berk was indeed a small village and it didn't really take more than 10 minutes to get to most places, but he hadn't exactly been paying attention to where they were going.

"That's what I was just about to say," Gobber muttered and, since they were now standing closer to him, they heard it just fine. "Anyway, in you go," he added, signaling for Astrid to go inside the house.

"Right," she started, shifting her weight from foot to foot as if she didn't really want to go. "So... thanks, Gobber?" It came out as a question of sorts, but Hiccup could see why. What exactly did you say to the man your parents had sent to accompany you because they didn't trust you and your new intended not to take advantage of what would normally be a five minute walk through town to run off into the forest and... do... stuff?

Gobber nodded at her, with an "aye, aye" and a signal for her to get going, but she turned to Hiccup instead. She just looked at him for a few seconds, and he was about to ask something really intelligent (probably along the lines of "...what?") when she punched him in the arm. "Ow!" he exclaimed- _as usual_- and was about to complain about the sudden violence, but thought better of it when he saw her narrow her eyes at him.

"That was for taking all the blame on yourself even though I told you not to do that!" she explained without prompting, hands on her hips. And, okay, maybe he deserved that one, so he couldn't complain. Not that it didn't hurt, though; he was about to raise his hand to rub at the place where she'd hit him when he found himself with an armful of Astrid.

He stiffened as if he'd been burned, although the arms thrown around his shoulders were anything but painful. And after a brief moment of his brain processing nothing but a strikingly familiar mantra (_Astrid_ was hugging him. Astrid was _hugging_ him. Astrid was hugging _him_...), he tried to muster up words around the knot in his throat and the pack of terrible terrors that were dancing in his stomach. "I, uh- what- what is _this_ for?"

She was silent for a heartbeat, but he felt her move her head, her golden hair brushing against his neck. And when she spoke, it was directly in his ear. "For everything else," she whispered softly, and this time he couldn't contain the shiver than ran down his back.

And then- _too soon!_- she was out of his arms and walking up the steps to her house. Hiccup could only stare, utterly besotted, at her form as it disappeared into the cabin and out of his sight.

"See, that's the way to do it," his mentor's voice came from behind him and Hiccup almost jumped three feet in the air as he was startled out of his Astrid-colored daydream. He'd completely forgotten Gobber was there. "A hug here, a kiss there. If people see it's innocent then everybody will stay mum. It's the skulking about at night that's got everyone's undies in a twist." He signaled for Hiccup to follow as he once again began to walk, following his delivery route.

"Gee, thanks, Gobber," Hiccup started, in a tone that was quite obviously _too_ chipper to be sincere. "That's sound advice. If only I had known this yesterday!" He rolled his eyes and started pulling the cart as he followed Gobber down the path to the next household.

"Don't get smart with me now, or I'll have you working past dinner," the smith warned, and Hiccup snorted. It's not like he wouldn't be working past dinner either way; as interesting as it would be to spend all his time in the forge daydreaming about Astrid (something that was not common at all for him... no, really), he had to get started on Toothless' new tail rig as soon as possible. "And don't think I'll let you spend the entire day mooning over the lass like a lost puppy! Now hurry up, those weapons aren't going to deliver themselves, are they?"

Once again wishing that his mentor didn't know him so well, Hiccup sighed, resigning himself to an evening of non-stop teasing, and another sleepless night.

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] Shieldmaidens were women who chose to fight as warriors, alongside the men. They were probably where the myth of the Valkyries came from. There are a few famous shieldmaidens who actually lived and whose actions were recorded in medieval historical accounts, but by far the most famous shieldmaiden is the Brynhildr of the Volsung saga, who was in love with the mythical Sigurd (aka Siegfried of the Nibelung saga). If you watch the History channel series _Vikings_, Lagertha is also a legendary example (and she is badass!). Contrary to popular belief, shieldmaidens did not swear any kind of chastity oath, so they were free to get married and have a family just as much as any other Viking warrior did.

[2] The _handsal_ was the formal agreement of the terms of the contract, which basically consisted of clasping the pair's hands together while the groom recited a declaration that the agreement was lawful and sealed and that all the promises stipulated in the contract had to be fulfilled without any sort of trickery. The hand-clasp was done in the presence of witnesses, sort of like a notary witnessing the signing of an official document in modern days.

[3] Viking marriages were pretty much just a business transaction to the benefit of both families, and as such, the concept of "dating" (or really, courtship) was discouraged; if the man and woman were to fall in love, it would have to be after they were married. Attempting to court the woman could be interpreted as the prospective groom taking "too long" to initiate official negotiations and it was considered disrespectful- which, given how fixated on family honor the Vikings were, meant the bride's family was absolutely allowed to kill the suitor. This also meant to discourage pre-marital relations and illegitimate children. Love poems were actually illegal, as they were thought to "ensnare" the women. Just the fact that Hiccup even mentions dating in the movie is already a sign that the HTTYD Vikings are way more progressive than their historical counterparts were. Thank Freyja for artistic license, huh? ;)

[4] You may recognize this one from _Gift of the Night Fury_.

[5] Viking wedding traditions/rituals are really cool, and really interesting. More on these to come in future chapters!

Hi, everyone! I hope you liked this second chapter; things are finally underway as far as the wedding goes, and Hiccup seems to have a plan for Toothless. We'll see how that goes soon enough. Right now I just wanted to thank anyone who read the first chapter, especially those of you who took the time to comment! I was hoping for a couple more reviews, but either way I'm thrilled that so many of you have left kudos and added this story to your favorites and alerts. I hope that means you'll stick with me for the rest of the ride!

**In the next chapter:** Oddly-shaped rocks, love nests, and moving a quarter-ton giant lizard through the forest. It's gonna be fun!

If you liked this chapter please leave a review; it's always good to know what aspects of this you like or don't like, and your comments help me a lot with my writing. Hope to hear from all of you. See you next Tuesday, and have a wonderful turn of the year! :)


	3. Chapter 3

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 3_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

"How 'bout that one?"

"That is... an oddly-shaped rock."

"I know! That's why it's the perfect place, see? I mean, if you turn your head and squint, it almost, kind of, looks like a dude's—"

"_Thank you, Ruffnut_, that is a mental image _I definitely did not need_," Astrid rasped out quickly, before her fellow blonde could finish the sentence. Her head hurt. Why did she ever think this would be a good idea? It was, in fact, shaping up to be the worst idea she had ever had.

Ruffnut had the gall to scoff at her. "Puh-lease, stop it with the prude act. It's not like you haven't already seen Hiccup's... oddly-shaped rock." She paused for a second. "Wait... _is_ Hiccup's really oddly-shaped? Come on, Astrid, you gotta give me some blackmail material here."

Astrid let out a groan of pure suffering. She wanted to repeatedly hit her head against the nearest hard surface available. Although preferably not the oddly-shaped rock; she was sure Ruffnut would find _some_ kind of innuendo in her actions if she were to do that.

It wasn't until four days after her last conversation with Hiccup that Astrid was able to go into the forest to look for a new hiding place for Toothless. Her mother kept her extremely busy with wedding preparations (looking all over the house for her mother's bridal crown [1], making a dress from scratch, collecting herbs for mixing the scented oils for her ritual bath [2], learning recipes that "all wives should know"— or attempting to, at least— among other things).

Even if she had had any free time, however, Bucket's prediction had proven true, and for the last three afternoons, intense storms had ravaged the archipelago. Most of the village's inhabitants had been restricted to their homes. On the one hand, it was bad because the weather had stopped her from fulfilling the task Hiccup had asked of her. On the other hand, it also meant the Goethi couldn't go into the forest for the ritual blessing of the cove, not until the rain stopped and the mud dried, so that was one good thing to come out of it.

When the sun dawned brightly on the fourth day, Astrid knew that afternoon would be her only chance to go on that recon mission. Still, it wasn't as easy as simply walking out of the house and into the forest: since what became known as "the incident," her mother had been watching her like a hawk, and was taking every measure available in her motherly arsenal to ensure that Astrid's virtue was not further compromised at any point before wedding day. [3]

And so, Astrid had to secure a chaperone, or at least a witness of some kind, to come with her to the forest and testify as to her good behavior. It had to be someone loose enough to not run to tell her parents or any other adults about her suspicious behavior, and dense enough that she could trick them into not asking too many questions. She could count on one hand the number of people fitting those criteria in the whole of Berk, and most of them were male, and as such immediately eliminated as options. Ruffnut also happened to be the least annoying out of them all, and so here they were.

But just because Ruff was mildly more tolerable than the rest didn't mean she wasn't annoying at all. Because she was. Very.

Astrid clenched her teeth and tried not to explode into a giant ball of fiery indignation. "I don't know— that is— I haven't seen..." She paused and took a deep breath. Her father had always told her that counting to ten in her mind was a good way of calming oneself down. Maybe that would work. _One, two..._ "For the last time, nothing happened between Hiccup and I. This is all just one big misunderstanding."

Ruffnut rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "How stupid do you think I am? Don't answer that," she added roughly when it seemed like Astrid was about to reply. "The point is: if you and Hiccup aren't sneaking around to hook up, then why are we looking for a 'safe, secluded location' right now?" she asked, quoting the instructions Astrid had given her when they set out on this expedition an hour previous. "Psh, you're _so_ looking for a love nest."

Astrid's hands were involuntarily reaching for the handle of her axe. _Thirteen, fourteen... clearly ten is not nearly enough..._ The Thorston twins had initially dismissed the idea of her and Hiccup "hooking up" as "impossible" and "ridiculous." To hear them, such a thing happening might trigger the entirety of Midgard [4] to implode. Or so they said at the beginning— once the whole town began to believe the rumor, they were only so happy to jump on board the "Hiccup and Astrid are doin' the nasty" ship. Hence why Ruffnut's new favorite term, "love nest," had already popped up in their conversation about eighty seven times.

"Why—" she started, frustratedly letting out a huff of air. _Twenty-two, twenty-three..._ To stop herself from punching the other girl, she walked a few paces off to check out what was behind the oddly-shaped rock; maybe there was some kind of cave or tunnel on the cliff wall that they hadn't seen. "Why would we need a _love nest_? We're getting married. We'll be living in the same house."

Over her shoulder, she saw Ruffnut shrug. "I dunno. I really have no idea what the Hel is going on with you two. But it's gotta be a big freaking deal if you won't even tell me why you dragged me out here in the first place." As Astrid came back, Ruff pointed in the opposite direction of where they came from. "I think there may be some caves past this bend. When we were little Tuff would hide some of his stuff so I wouldn't destroy it, but he's stupid so I found him out anyway. I think the place was somewhere around here."

Astrid signaled for the other girl to lead the way, pointedly ignoring the veiled question Ruffnut had posed. She hoped dodging the topic would be enough, and maybe Ruffnut would get distracted by something else and get off her case, but she wasn't in luck. "Are you ever going to tell me why you need to find a cave so badly?" the girl kept pushing the question.

Astrid started quickening her steps until she got ahead of her. She had no idea where she was going, but she couldn't look at Ruffnut as she responded brusquely. "It's really not a big deal."

"That's what you keep saying..." Ruffnut grumbled from behind her. Once again Astrid thought the matter was closed. She should've known better. "Wait, you're not pregnant, are you?"

Astrid had never been the clumsy sort, but the question caught her so off-guard that she almost tripped on a tree root. "What?!" she halted her steps and turned around so sharply, her own braid hit her on the side of her face. She didn't even flinch. "How do you get 'pregnancy' from a cave in the forest?!" She was sure her face was red enough to rival Stoick's hair at that moment. Normally she'd just ignore such stupid comments, but maybe because all the blood in her head was making her fuzzy, she couldn't help but counter Ruffnut's ludicrous arguments.

"Well, a cave just seems like a good place to hide a baby!"

"And how would I hide it for the _previous_ nine months?!"

"I don't know! I don't make the plans, it's _your_ kid!"

"It's not my kid, _there is no kid!_" she yelled, loudly enough that they could probably hear her all the way to Outcast island, but she didn't care. She just wanted Ruff to shut. Up. _Now._ "Gods grant me patience," she muttered under her breath, with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, it just popped into my head!" Ruffnut exclaimed, lifting her arms in front of her as if to defend herself in case of any sudden attacks. She nervously eyed the handle of Astrid's axe, which she had holstered at her back. Her knees were bent, as if ready to flee her fellow Viking's wrath at a second's notice.

She was afraid. Good. Astrid thought fear was the appropriate response. "Well, next time something that ridiculous pops into your head, _don't just blurt it out_." She narrowed her eyes menacingly at the Thorston girl. "I'm already in enough trouble without you making the rumors even worse!" With an annoyed "urgh!" she turned around again and kept walking. The sooner they found the gods-damned cave, the sooner she could get away from this idiocy.

"Sorr-ee," Ruffnut couldn't manage to actually sound repentant now that she knew Astrid wasn't going to kill her. She fell into step beside Astrid again. "Kinda makes you think the love nest idea isn't so bad after all, though, doesn't it?" That again! Astrid glared at her some more, for good measure. Ruffnut wasn't bothered. "All I'm saying is, if you're going to stick to the whole 'nothing happened' idea, at least make it convincing."

"What do you mean, convincing?" If humans could shoot needles from their eyes, Ruffnut would be a pincushion by now. "It's the truth!" she added, incensed. She was so sick of people not believing her.

"Yeah? Well then I'm disappointed in you, Astrid Hofferson," she said, her nose in the air in a dramatic fashion. Ruffnut actually looked offended, like Astrid's insistence on her purity had somehow let her down. Astrid stared at her in disbelief. "I never thought you of all people would just take a sentence like this if you didn't do anything to deserve it."

"I tried to stop it," Astrid insisted, still defending her version of the events. They had tried, both her and Hiccup, but no matter what arguments they came up with, they couldn't sway their parents. "It didn't work. The contract's already been drawn, and you know I have no choice but to go with it. It's my duty to my family. There's nothing I can do."

"Your duty, yeah, yeah, I know the spiel," Ruffnut waved a hand dismissively, and once again Astrid wanted to just strangle her. "But that wasn't what I meant. What I'm saying is, okay, say you didn't sleep with the guy. I can take your word for it. But if I were you," she leaned in closer, as if she was telling Astrid a secret, "I'd have made sure I at least got a little _something_ to be worth all this trouble, if you know what I mean." She wiggled her brow in a suggestive manner, and Astrid rolled her eyes. "'Cause, really, what's the point of being punished like a bad girl if you didn't get any of the fun of being bad?"

Astrid opened her mouth to tell Ruffnut off again, but something in the girl's words gave her pause. Her steps slowed down and Ruffnut advanced ahead of her, but she didn't mind. She was lost in thought. Did Ruff have a point? Had her continued insistence that nothing happened between her and Hiccup only fueled the rumors further? The other blonde obviously didn't know about Toothless, otherwise she may have changed her mind about Astrid not doing anything "bad," but she no longer thought cavorting with dragons was a bad thing. She didn't feel like a bad girl, that was the truth.

She didn't notice Ruffnut had gotten so far ahead until her exclamation shook her out of her thoughts: "Found it!" Astrid looked up to see the other blonde pointing to a slight indentation on the mountain wall. As she walked closer, she saw it was the entrance to a cave, partly hidden by a cover of thick foliage.

They walked inside carefully. It was a small cave, its ceiling just a few inches above their heads, although Astrid thought to herself that it might at least be wide enough for Toothless to stretch his wings comfortably and not feel cramped. The floor was knotted with vines and leaves blown by the wind, and a series of barrels lined the back wall. "What's with the barrels?" Astrid asked, curious.

"That's where Tuff used to put his stuff," Ruffnut answered, not paying the wooden containers much attention. "Once he tried to steal one of my mother's chests so he could have a place to store his toys, but she caught him, so he started sneaking empty mead barrels from the Great Hall instead."

Astrid frowned. "Are you sure he doesn't still come here? Maybe he remembers the place and stops by every once in a while." She didn't want Tuffnut poking his nose in things that weren't his business. Unexpectedly coming face to face with a dragon, he could lose that nose. She didn't trust he was smart enough not to get himself killed.

It was now Ruffnut's turn to roll her eyes. "Tuff doesn't even remember what he had for breakfast this morning." She shook her head. "So, is this what you were looking for?" she asked, regarding the cave.

Inwardly, Astrid thought it was perfect, but of course she couldn't let Ruff know that. She wasn't any better than her twin in the whole "staying out of other people's business" aspect. "I don't think so. It's very wet in here, and the ceiling's a bit too low," she lied though her teeth.

"Why does that matter?" was Ruffnut's reply. "It's not like Hiccup's going to hit his head or anything; he's shorter than you."

Astrid took another deep breath and pushed her mental count past fifty. "Once again, _not a love nest_," she emphasized. "Come on, let's keep looking. There's gotta be some place around here that works..." She signaled for the other girl to follow her, but in her mind she already knew this was the place. Now all she had to do was move Toothless...

...Which was easier said than done. The next afternoon, she decided to forgo the chaperone and simply snuck out after dinner, hoping to return before bedtime. That didn't happen. Going on her own meant she had to haul an overgrown lizard from one end of the forest to the other without any help, and although Toothless recognized her as a friend of Hiccup's and didn't exactly put up any resistance, he was a curious creature and it seemed like something distracted him in every step of the way.

When Toothless stopped for the third time to sniff out what she believed was a very frightened squirrel, Astrid decided to let him go for a bit and have a breather. She was afraid she might break Hiccup's harness, which she was using as a sort of leash to pull him along. It wasn't a problem to rest a little, since the dragon couldn't fly off anyway. _Didn't Hiccup say he moved Toothless like this once?_ She frowned. The boy had made it sound so easy.

They did reach the entrance to the cave eventually, but that's where the _real_ struggle began.

"Toothless," she grunted as she tried to push the huge reptile into the cave, "it's for your own good. Come on!" But the dragon wouldn't budge, and Astrid's feet were digging into the ground and sliding on the mud from the sheer effort. As if she ever had a shot at actually moving him; he must weigh about 50 skippund, at _least_! [5]

For the whole trek through the forest, she'd been leading Toothless by the harness, not wanting to touch him more than strictly necessary. Not that she thought he might hurt her, but years of conditioning to always keep her reflexes sharp in the presence of dragons just wouldn't go away in one day. Still, when they got to the cave and the beast resolutely refused to go in, she had no choice but to get hands on.

Her reflexes did her good, though, when she felt the scaly body push against her and she realized Toothless was not only standing his ground, but actually stepping back. She had about half a second to get out of the way before he inadvertently trampled her. She didn't take it against him; she might not have spent much time around him, but the low, wheezy sounds he was making made her think that he was being contrary out of real discomfort, rather than mischief.

She had a brief moment of panic— _There isn't a giant queen dragon inside this cave, is there?_— but she shook herself, realizing how silly that thought was. Of course there wasn't a giant queen dragon on Berk! Her fellow villagers might not be the smartest of people, but surely they would've noticed _that_!

Rolling her eyes at herself, she decided to go see what was freaking Toothless out. Maybe there were snakes inside the cave? She'd seen a few adders around the forest before [6], but she thought it would be very comical for a giant, fire-breathing king predator to be afraid of a little snake. She made sure jump over his restless tail as it moved jerkily from side to side, but she wasn't counting on him suddenly stretching his wings, which caught her hard enough in the head that she stumbled to the side.

"Agh, would you just be still!" she exclaimed after she took a few seconds to re-orient herself. The dragon warbled in response as he retracted one wing quickly as if to let her pass, and she wasn't sure if it was a noise of complaint or apology, but she glared at him anyway. Now her hair was falling half out of her braid, she must look crazy enough to frighten a troll, and she was attempting to argue rationally with a dragon. Just great.

One good thing about almost being swatted away by the creature was that she could see she'd been correct in her choice: the cave was wide enough to accommodate Toothless' wingspan comfortably if he chose to stretch while inside. She walked between Toothless and the mouth of the cave, and looked at him straight in his big, green eyes. He had very expressive eyes; she hadn't seen them the first time she met him, it was too dark and night furies blended all too well in the darkness, but she could see them now, his pupils wide and innocent, something she never imagined a dragon could look like. She wondered if this was why Hiccup couldn't bring himself to hurt him.

"Okay, what is it, Toothless?" she asked the still struggling dragon. She went to pull him back by his harness, which she knew wouldn't make a difference if he truly decided to run off, but he seemed to realize what that would do to her, and was holding back on his own strength. Having already been knocked on the head once, she appreciated it. "Is there something in the cave that scares you? A bad smell that you can't stand? What?"

The beast growled in what she interpreted as a negative, and by the gods, she was _actually having a conversation with a dragon_. If anyone had told her a week ago that something like this would ever happen, she would've called them crazy. Hel, she _felt_ a bit crazy herself. But it was not the time to question her sanity; she had to do whatever it took to calm the creature down. "Toothless, this is really important. You _need_ to stay in that cave. So if there's anything in there that's upsetting you, I can try to fix it..."

The dragon jerked his head from side to side— she figured that was another negative— and spread both wings yet again. He flapped them once, twice, three times, the wind picking up around them with the movement. Astrid's hair became even more of a mess than it already was, branches of trees nearby started swinging up and down, and all the leaves and twigs surrounding them were swept away by the sudden current. Toothless let out a pained bellow and looked straight into Astrid's eyes, somewhat retracting and extending his wings repeatedly as if trying to emphasize a point. That's when she understood what he was trying to tell her: it wasn't what was _in_ the cave that was bothering him, but rather the idea of the cave itself.

"Oh, Toothless..." she whispered, feeling sad for the poor creature. She had never flown before that one time with Hiccup, lived her entire life on the ground, never even thinking she'd ever be able to fly, but she missed it already. There was something magical, something freeing about seeing their world from above... If even she was starting to feel trapped on their little island after only six days, she couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like for Toothless, having to remain grounded when before he used to be able take to the skies at his own leisure. The cove had been a poor substitute for flying, but at least he got to be outside, splash in the water, see the sun. This dark, dank cave must feel like a cage to him.

"I'm so sorry you have to go through this," she said, and stretched a hand out to touch his snout, much like Hiccup had told her he once had. The creature looked at her with watery, wide eyes for a second before moving forward to touch her extended palm with the tip of his nose. His hide was scaly, but unlike that of other reptiles she had experience with, it was warm. "I wouldn't like to stay in there either, believe me, but I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't absolutely necessary."

The dragon warbled at her, not struggling anymore, only looking at her with those sad eyes. She sighed, lifting her other hand to cradle the dragon's face. "I don't know how much of what I'm saying you can actually understand," she started again, making sure to stare straight at him as she spoke. If he couldn't understand her words, maybe her behavior, or the tone of her voice, would clue him in to how serious this was. "But Toothless, this is really important. You _have_ to stay hidden. If any other Vikings see you, they would hurt you. And Hiccup would be in big, big trouble."

At the mention of the boy's name, Toothless let out something of a whine. "Yes. Hiccup. You like Hiccup, right?" The dragon rubbed the side of his head against her hand, which made her smile. "I like him, too. He's a good guy. He'd be really sad if anything happened to you... and I don't want to see him sad. I don't think you want that either, right, boy?" Her answer was another wail. "I know you don't. But that's why you have to go into the cave and stay there for a while. Do you understand?"

The creature stared at her in silence before looking down, and letting out a grumble as he shuffled one clawed foot on the dirt like a little kid who was just scolded by his mother. Of his own volition, he started walking past her and into the cave. Once he was sheltered within the darkened cavity, he moved in circles and let out a short burst of flame from his mouth, before lying down on the bed of scorched leaves. Resting his jaw on his folded front legs, he gave Astrid what she could only describe as a flippant expression, almost like he was saying _"There. Satisfied?"_

It made her laugh. "Good boy," she cooed, moving forward to scratch him lightly behind his ears. As much as the dragon attempted to hold his sassy look, it only took a few seconds of the girl's attention to have him almost purring in contentment. "Now, I promise either Hiccup or I will come visit you every day, and bring you some food, and maybe take you out of the cave for a while. But when we're not here you have to stay hidden and remain very quiet, okay?"

With one last pet for the sweet creature, she moved some branches of the surrounding bushes to cover the mouth of the cave, and quickly returned to town. Seeing light flickering from inside the forge, she stopped at the entrance for a moment. It was late, so she knew that it was most likely Hiccup who was inside, probably working on the rigging for Toothless' tail fin.

She couldn't talk to him, but she had to let him know where she had moved Toothless. Taking out from her boot a note/map she'd written before she left her house, she looked around the wooden frame of the forge entrance for a loose nail, and used it to pin the folded piece of parchment to the wood, hoping the boy would come across it and read it. Once that was done, she went back home, sneaking in through her window and hoping her parents were none the wiser about her absence.

She changed into her sleep clothes quickly, so that if she went to bed early, her parents wouldn't rope her into completing more wedding chores. As she was letting her hair out of what was left of her braid, she noticed something was missing: her _kransen_, which she usually wore every day, was not on her head. Great, had she dropped it in the forest? Maybe it came off when Toothless accidentally hit her.

Hoping against hope that it was somewhere in her room and she'd just forgotten she didn't have it on when she left (she was so used to wearing it that sometimes it was like she didn't even feel it, so maybe the opposite had finally happened), she started turning her bedroom upside down in search of it. She was in the middle of diving through her clothes chest when someone knocked on the wooden frame that marked the entrance to her room.

She looked up from her search to meet her mother's stern gaze, and immediately tensed. Tensions with the Hofferson matriarch had been running high all week. "Hi, Mom. What is it?" she asked, carefully. She didn't want to get into yet another argument.

Gertrud put her hands on her wide hips in a way that made Astrid certain there was no way to dodge the incoming fight. "And where have you been all evening, young lady?" the older woman asked in a no-nonsense tone. "I thought I told you to come straight back home after dinner! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I took a walk," Astrid replied quickly. She'd been hoping that her parents wouldn't have noticed her absence, but that didn't mean she didn't have an excuse readily prepared in case they did. "Is that against the law now?"

"It is when you sneak out without telling anybody where you're going," her mother shot back, pointing down at the mud tracks Astrid left on the floor of her room, but not anywhere near her doorway or the corridor outside. Obviously her mother could see she'd made her way in and out through the window. "Who were you with?"

Astrid put the few clothes she'd taken out of her chest back inside, and closed down the lid with a little more force than was strictly necessary. "I can tell you who I was _not_ with," she answered, glaring in her mother's direction. "I haven't seen Hiccup, I don't even know where he is— probably at the forge, you can go there and ask him, he'll tell you that I haven't talked to him in days."

"That's not what I asked you," Gertrud retorted, shaking her head as if indicating that Astrid was digging her own grave by being so snippy.

Astrid stood up, fighting the urge to stomp her foot down. "I went by myself!" she exclaimed, spreading her arms for emphasis. "Mother, I don't know if you realize, but I'm getting married in less than a week. My life is going to change forever, and I kind of have a lot in my mind right now." She crossed her arms, defiantly. "So I went for a walk, tried to clear my head. I wasn't with anyone. Is that good enough for you? Or do you need to, I don't know, _sniff me_ to make sure I haven't been making out with anyone tonight?"

"What I _need_," her mother rebutted, "is for you to stop acting like the things you do have no consequences. You can't just go off wherever and whenever you want without thinking, not anymore! All I want, Astrid, is for you to make a good match and have a respectable marriage, but you keep making things more difficult..."

"I haven't done _anything_ wrong!" she exclaimed, getting louder and louder with each sentence she spoke, but she couldn't help it. She felt trapped; trapped in her own home, in her own family. She was beginning to understand how Toothless really felt in that cave, and she hated it. "I simply went for a walk. A completely harmless, innocent walk. And maybe if you would stop treating me like a _criminal_, then I wouldn't need to sneak out right under your nose."

"If you would just stay put when I tell you to, I wouldn't have any reason to doubt you!" Gertrud sentenced right back, waggling an accusing finger in Astrid's direction.

"I haven't given you any reason to doubt me. You just value everyone else's word over mine," Astrid shot back, scowling.

"Because our family's honor is our legacy," was Gertrud's last, final argument. "You are the last of the Hoffersons, Astrid, and it is my duty as your mother to make sure when you become part of the Haddock clan, it is on full compliance with our traditions so that our family can be remembered through the generations as an honorable one. Now, enough," she snapped when it seemed that Astrid wanted to interject. "That's as much lip as I'll take from you tonight. Go to bed, and we'll continue the wedding preparations in the morning."

With that, she turned on her heel and left the room, leaving Astrid behind her to glare at the space she vacated on the doorframe. The young woman clenched her fists, infuriated. Ruffnut's words from the day before reverberated inside her head: _What's the point of being punished like a bad girl if you didn't get any of the fun of being bad?_ Ruff was right, she was completely right.

And so, determined not to let her mother have the last word in _her_ life, she turned to her bed and carefully arranged her pillows under the furs so that it would look like someone was lying there, fast asleep. Once that was done she put on her boots and picked up her jacket, and without even one look back to check if anyone was watching, went out the window again.

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] A bridal crown was, as the name implies, a type of crown the bride wore on her wedding day. In some places it was woven from straw, in others it was made from silver (I've also read it could be iron) and decorated with colorful ribbons and/or flowers. It replaces the _kransen_ Viking girls wore to represent their maidenhood (Astrid wears her _kransen_ in both HTTYD movies. She will stop wearing it the day she marries Hiccup— _hint hint_, Dean DeBlois? x3).

[2] On the day of her wedding, the bride was taken to a bath-house and ritually cleansed, signifying the "washing away" of her maiden status and a purification for the religious rituals that would take place during the wedding. The bride was attended in that occassion by fellow married women, who would instruct her on her wifely duties and give her advice for her married life. The groom also went through a similar cleansing; more on this coming in future chapters.

[3] Viking tradition was a bit "damned if you do, damned if you don't." While any hint of attraction and/or wooing between a Viking male and female might lead to a marriage contract being drawn in order to officialize the match (if the families involved find the match advantageous— otherwise the poor dude would end up pushing daisies), the contract itself does not give the twosome free reign to be intimate with each other, physically or otherwise. It was recommended that the bride and groom avoid interacting until their union was blessed by the gods in marriage. Any hint of impropriety during the "engagement" period could be cause for the full cancellation of the contract and bring shame to both parties... and then the dude would be pushing daisies for sure. Man, I would not want to be Hiccup in this scenario.

[4] Midgard is the name Norsemen gave to the world inhabited by humans (aka this world we live in). According to Norse cosmology, there were nine worlds or realms, each one lying on the branches of the life tree, Yggdrasill, which connected them. Hel (or Helheim) was the world of the dead (it's where the world "hell" came from), and Asgard was one of two worlds inhabited by gods. There was also a world for giants, one for elves, one for dwarves... and so on.

[5] A _skippund_ is a Norse unit of measure that was equal to about 12 pounds; Astrid is therefore saying Toothless must weigh around 600 pounds. I based Toothless' weight on that of the Quetzalcoatlus, a pterosaur which is thought to be the largest flying animal that has ever existed, with wingspans of up to 12 meters and weighing between 400-550 pounds. Toothless looks a little bit more solid than a Quetzalcoatlus did, but he's really fast, so I'm going to say they weigh about the same. As for larger dragons than Toothless being able to fly... we'll chalk it up to the fantastical elements of the _How To Train Your Dragon_ universe, yeah?

[6] Adders are snakes, members of the viper family. The _Vipera berus_, known as the common European adder/viper, is the one Astrid was referring to. They're common all the way from western Europe to east Asia.

Hello, all! I hope you liked this chapter, because it's one of my favorites. Mainly because I love me some Ruffnut (she is awesome!), but also because one of my goals from the beginning was to show some interaction between Astrid and Toothless— they're the most important beings in Hiccup's life (apart from Stoick) and I just really need them to be BFFs, okay? Hence this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

**In the next chapter:** Things heat up between our two leads, if you know what I mean. You don't want to miss this one! ;)

I was thrilled with the response to chapter 2, and I think I managed to respond to everybody who reviewed, but either way I wanted to say it again: thank you so much for your comments, your questions and your kudos. You don't know how much it means to me to know what you think about this story. There's nothing I love more than interacting with my readers. Lots of love to you all.

If you liked this, please leave a review; your comments help me a lot with my writing, so I hope to hear from all of you this time as well. Also you can feel free to follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird) because sometimes I post little hints or snippets from future chapters there! See you all next Tuesday. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 4_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

When Hiccup walked into the Haddock lodge well past midnight, he didn't even bother being quiet about it. His father would already be dead to the world, he knew; while Stoick had the reflexes and instincts of a seasoned warrior, after a full day of chiefing and making arrangements for Hiccup's upcoming nuptials, it would take a full-on dragon raid to get the formidable man off the bed and on his feet at any point before the sun rose again.

Hiccup still clutched Astrid's note tightly in his fist. When he walked out of the forge to find the folded piece of parchment neatly pinned to the frame of the forge's entrance, relief had flooded through him like a tidal wave. When he saw his father leave the house that morning, he'd been afraid today would be the day his father would gather up a small garrison of Vikings to accompany him down to the cove, witness the Goethi's ritual blessing and start arranging the place for the wedding. And since he hadn't heard from Astrid in days, Hiccup was afraid she'd be too late in moving Toothless to another location.

Seeing Astrid's note, however, was all he needed to regain his peace of mind (well, as peaceful as the mind of someone being forced into marriage could get). Looking at the map she had drawn, he felt very reassured; the new hiding place she'd found seemed perfect. It was relatively far away from the cove, the old grove, and even the section of the forest where the Hooligans usually knocked down trees for lumber. And on top of that, if he remembered correctly, it was an area densely populated with vegetation, without many clearings. That meant it was very unlikely for anyone to just stumble across this cave during their day-to-day activities.

If he knew Toothless at all— and he thought he knew him well enough by now— then he was sure the dragon wasn't taking well to being cooped up inside a dark cave for so long. And Hiccup wouldn't make him go through that either, not if there was any other choice. Unfortunately he couldn't see one at the moment, but at least he wouldn't have to stay there much longer. The intense rain that had poured down on the archipelago recently had the positive side advantage of keeping most of the village sequestered in their houses, and as such there weren't many customers at the forge over the past few days. That gave him a lot of time to work on Toothless' new tail rig, as well as his other projects for the wedding.

He had just finished Astrid's axe that morning. Normally, the axe used for the fertility rite didn't have to be all that elaborate, as it seldom got used after the couple got married. This was Astrid, though, so Hiccup decided to make an axe tailored to her battle skills, so that not only it could be used in the fertility rite, but also afterward. He decided he would give it to her as part of her morning gift. [1] Of course, the idea of what the fertility rite and the morning gift were _for_ induced a lot of blushing in the young man as he worked on the axe— blushing that his mentor was only all-too-eager to tease him over.

Not that he was getting any ideas, of course. Frigg might curse him for all eternity, but he wasn't about to force Astrid to do anything she didn't want to do. Not that he _could_ force her into anything, even if he tried. And he was pretty sure she didn't want to do anything with him.

So that was one thing done. The rings he'd also finished early on. And his father had stopped by the forge that afternoon to let Hiccup know that tomorrow they'd be heading out to the grove to obtain an ancient Haddock sword which Hiccup would use for the ceremony. [2] He was about to protest, because he knew Stoick still kept his own ancient family sword from back when he got married to Hiccup's mother, but he suspected his father was keeping it as a reminder of his mother, who was supposed to hold on to it until Hiccup's time came to get married. As such, he couldn't bring himself to put up a fight. Unearthing an old relative's burial mound would not be the most comfortable experience of his life, but he could get through it knowing that his father still held onto his mother's memory somehow.

Now all that was left on his list of items to make was Astrid's sword. He was muttering under his breath, making a mental list of all the materials he would need for it, as he walked up the steps and into his bedroom.

"You're funny when you talk to yourself."

"Sorry, I'm just thinking out— ack!" He jumped about three feet back and almost stumbled back down the stairs when he realized he wasn't alone. Astrid was sitting on his windowsill and looking like visiting him in his bedroom was something she did every day. She was wearing a thin tunic that came down to her thighs and looked like something she would wear to bed, along with her leggings, boots and an overcoat.

He quickly tried to calm himself down in an attempt to appear cool. No need for her to know that she had startled the soul out of him and almost sent him flailing about the room like a frightened chicken. He cleared his throat. "Astrid! Hi. Hi... Astrid. Hi."

Okay, so that wasn't his best attempt either. She confirmed it when the corners of her mouth drew up in amusement. "You've already said that."

Great, now she was laughing at him. _Smooth, Hiccup_, he chastised himself mentally. "Right. Um. So, uh..." he tried to find a way to start a conversation without babbling too much. "What— what are you doing here? In my house. In my bedroom. At night. In my bedroom."

She shrugged, like her presence in his bedroom (because, yes, we'd already established that _Astrid Hofferson was in his bedroom_) wasn't a big freaking deal. "My mother is being completely unreasonable. I just felt like I had to get out of the house, is all."

He looked at her for a couple seconds, wondering if her parents were being as stubborn about everything as his own father was. He walked forward and sat on his bed, facing her. "Well, it could be worse. At least you don't have to rob a grave." The moment he heard the words he just said, he could've kicked himself. The girl he'd liked for what felt like his entire life was in his bedroom, and the best conversation topic he could offer was _grave robbing_? Hopeless. He was completely hopeless.

She looked at him with a deadpan expression for about a heartbeat, probably gauging whether or not that was a joke (it was a reaction he got often. Needless to say, the people of Berk had not yet grown to appreciate Hiccup's brand of humor). After a moment she shook her head. "Anyway, that's not why I came here." She pushed herself off the sill and on her feet, and shrugged off her coat before dropping it haphazardly on the place where she had just been sitting.

She took a step closer to him, and to Hiccup the motion almost felt a little... predatory. As if normal Astrid wasn't scary enough. "Oh. Well, uh," he cleared his throat, mentally willing himself not to say anything stupid. "If you wanted to tell me about Toothless, I should mention that I got your note, and—"

"It's not about Toothless," she interrupted him, and she had to have taken a few more steps toward him as he spoke because she was now just a couple of feet away from him. And he really should've noticed because she was right in front of him but with the way she was moving— determined, calculated, purposeful— he was hardly staring at her feet.

"Ah, okay, well— If you don't mind me bringing it up real quick, I just wanted to say again— to say thank you, I mean, because I know it couldn't have been easy to move him around, he can be really stubborn when he wants to be. When I first made his saddle he actually made me run around after him. He thinks he's so funny, but really he's just..."

Suddenly she was right in front of him, and then she was sitting down beside him on the bed, and he was still flapping his jaw about Toothless when she grabbed it firmly between her hands and none-too-gently turned his head to look at her. "Hiccup. Stop talking."

He looked back at her, probably stupidly wide-eyed. She was so close. "Okay. Sorry. Um, why?"

She didn't answer his question; instead, she pulled his face to hers and resolutely planted her lips on his.

Hiccup didn't know one person could experience so many reactions at once. On the one hand, he felt like the temperature went up a hundred degrees in a matter of seconds, and it was going to make him melt into the furs that covered his bed. Her lips were plush, if a little chapped, and maybe she was kissing him a little _too_ adamantly but she was _kissing_ him and it felt so good that his head was clouding up and he was sure this had to be some kind of elaborate dream.

On the other hand, he was suddenly absolutely terrified. He'd never been kissed before— not like this, definitely not— and he had no idea what to do. He felt like a fish out of water, floundering up and down and completely out of his element. He tried to reciprocate but he couldn't seem to move, he didn't know what to do with his lips, oh gods he didn't know where to put his _hands_, and she was pushing up against him and he couldn't _think_.

With his luck being what it was, she didn't fail to notice his inner disquiet and pulled back to look at him with a frown. "Do something," she demanded.

And she was well within her right, he thought, because _of course_ he had to do something. He couldn't very well stand there gaping like an idiot when the girl he'd had a crush on since forever was trying to kiss him, right? Now, if only his idiot mouth could work with him... "I don't know— this is— what is happe—" He meant to nod, or say something dashing or whatever, but chopped sentences were the only thing that would come out of his mouth at the moment.

With an exasperated sigh, she dove right back in, not giving him even a moment to steel himself for the expected onslaught of feelings. He tried to kiss her back to the best of his abilities— although he still didn't know where to put his hands so he just kept them by his sides, grabbing fistfuls of fur like it could somehow give him courage— don't get him wrong, it felt amazing, but it was hard to keep up with her momentum.

There was something... off about the way she was kissing him. Not that he had anything to compare it to, but there was something a bit forced about it. It wasn't even like she was too enthusiastic, it was more like she was... adamant. Steadfast. Like she was in dragon training, rather than making out with a boy. Which kind of made sense, because this was Astrid and she was nothing if not determined, but shouldn't kissing feel less like a challenge and more like an enjoyable experience? "Astrid— wait, just— maybe we should—"

She pulled back again, and he took a breath to ask her what brought this on, but as it turned out, she paused in her attentions only to sling a leg over both his own so that she was sitting on his lap. "Whoa, oh-kay—" His hands went to her waist, instinctively supporting her so she wouldn't topple off him and the bed by accident. Her arms wrapped fully around his neck as she went back to his mouth, which made her chest push against his. Her weight on him felt incredible, and her hips were flush against his, which was mind blowing, save for the fact that it was causing certain parts of his lower anatomy to stand at attention and _oh gods, this could get really embarrassing, really fast_. "Astrid, can you just—" he started again, words muffled against her lips, as he attempted to squirm backwards before she could notice his, erm, excitement. "What— what are we doing?"

She stopped to look at him, flushed, out of breath, and somehow prettier than he could remember. "You don't like it?" she asked, with a frown that was almost aghast.

"What? No. No no no no no," he lifted a hand from her waist to gesticulate for emphasis. "That's not what I said! Believe me, I— I like it, I like it _a lot_." If he had any blood left in his face he would've blushed at that unintended admission, but that didn't seem to be possible at the moment. "I'm just saying, maybe we should talk about this—"

Whatever he'd been about to say slipped right out of his mind a second later, because as soon as "no" came out of his mouth, she seemed to take his response as good enough and, with a small smirk, leaned down to kiss him again. "If they're going to punish me anyway, then I'm gonna _give_ them something to punish me for," she murmured against his mouth, her breath teasing his lips, and by Freyja, it was the hottest thing he'd ever heard. Her lips swooped in, tugging at his, teeth pulling at his lower lip as if urging him to open his mouth and— oh, wow, was that her _tongue?_

But, wait... what did she just say?

"Astrid— mmph—" When her words finally registered in his mind, that snapped him out of his mental fog pretty quickly. "Wait," he let go of her and raised his hands to push lightly against her shoulders and— _what the Hel was wrong with him_— stop her from kissing him anymore. "Is that why you're doing this?" he asked finally, his breath ragged and his stare as accusing as he could make it. "You're kissing me to get back at your parents?"

Her eyes widened under his scrutiny. "What? No, that's not—" she started, and mentally he begged for her to finish the sentence. For her to tell him that she was kissing him because she genuinely liked him, and that she wasn't using him in some sort of revenge against her mother and father for forcing her into this mess. He didn't want this if she was just doing it out of spite.

She looked stricken. "Hiccup, I—" She cringed. "This isn't about you..." she stated, weakly.

She must've thought that would make him feel better, but it really didn't. His expression hardened, and he immediately pulled his hands off her shoulders and back at his sides, so the only part of their bodies that was touching was their thighs, where she was sitting on his lap. "Can you get off me, please?" he asked, looking everywhere but at her.

She complied with his request but remained standing in front of him, looking at him tentatively, afflicted, with her arms wrapped around her torso like a child who just got told off by her mother. "Hiccup, if you'd just let me explain..." she started again, but he simply wasn't having it.

He shook his head. "No. See? Explanations don't make a difference." He stood up and stalked to the end of the bed, pacing as he spoke, still under Astrid's troubled gaze. "It is what it is. You still hate me, and I— I don't want this unless you love me back. So please, can you just... leave? It's not like anybody saw, so we can go on with our lives and pretend this never happened."

"I don't hate you," was her response. He gave a quick look in her direction and then turned away with a scoff. He wasn't sure if he was angrier at her deception or simply embarrassed that he got so caught up in it... or maybe both... but she could do the decent thing and let him retain his dignity by walking away now.

It seemed that wasn't in her plans, however, as he heard his bed creak behind him and assumed she had sat back down. "I'm serious," she continued speaking. He looked at her over his shoulder. "I don't hate you. I don't even not like you. I wouldn't be doing this with just anyone. Really. Look, can you just... come here?" she added, patting the spot next to her on the bed. "I won't jump you again, I promise."

He pondered her request for a few seconds. Then, cursing the part of him that still wished she _would_ jump him again, he acquiesced, moving to sit down beside her, although keeping a safe distance of a couple of inches from her. There was silence for a minute and he wondered if she actually had anything she wanted to say, but after a bit she turned to look at him, those icy blue eyes of hers almost liquid in the lowlight.

She bit her lip lightly before steeling up and starting to talk again. "Hiccup, I want you to know that my objections to this marriage have nothing to do with you personally, and everything to do with not wanting other people to control my life." She sighed and looked down at her knees, which she kept pressed together primly. "I don't know if that makes any sense, but... all my life I've known who I am, and who I want to become... and this... none of this was part of the plan."

He let out a mirthless chuckle. "Well, see, that was your first mistake," he quipped, in his usual sardonic tone. "Me? I was totally planning on getting married at fifteen. I'm completely ready to be a husband. Hiccup the family man, that's what they call me."

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he took it as a sign that she didn't appreciate the sarcasm at that moment. But then she couldn't keep the annoyance up, and she deflated with a groan, bending forward until her face was pressed against her knees. "This is all Ruff's fault, anyway," he heard her mutter, words muffled by her arms around her head.

Hiccup had no idea how Ruffnut was involved in all of this, and frankly, he didn't dare ask. Astrid didn't explain, even as she straightened up again. "I really wasn't trying to... use you to get back at my parents, Hiccup. It's really not about you. You're a great guy, and you're my friend. I _know_ I could do much worse, I know that. I just... I guess I just snapped."

She looked so dejected, it was obvious she was sincere, and he felt his anger begin to slowly ebb away. No one had ever told him they could do worse than him before. How pathetic was he, for actually feeling uplifted by it? But the sad truth was, ever since he could crawl, he was always at the bottom of the pile. The failure. The useless. Now there was at least one person who didn't feel that way about him. And the fact that it was _Astrid_, of all people...

Unknowing of how much her words had served to comfort him, she shook her head, as if disappointed in herself. "I'm so sick of everyone forcing me to act a certain way, and I just wanted to something that was _my_ decision..." She sighed, like she was exhausted. "But I guess this little escapade doesn't really help things, does it?"

Despite still feeling hurt from what just happened between them, he did understand. He probably understood better than anyone else, given that he was also knees deep in this. And he knew Astrid; he knew that she put a lot of pride in being always in control of things. The way things had been snowballing down on them recently, it had to be killing her. He smiled, as much as he could anyway, trying to lighten the mood. "Yeah, it wasn't your best idea ever," he said, with a shrug.

She mock glared at him, somewhere between amused and embarrassed. "Thanks," she deadpanned, and couldn't hold back a laugh at the end.

He smiled, and this time he didn't have to force it. He liked hearing her laugh; it was nice. "Not that it was a horrible experience or anything," he said, laughing as well, with his hands raised in the air as if saying _Don't blame me!_ "Because it wasn't. Not at all. The whole complaining thing was more... on principle, really."

"I'm sure," she said, her lips somewhere in between a smile and a smirk. Once the amusement wound down, she looked down at her hands, clasped together in her lap, seeming contemplative.

Hiccup didn't feel the need to say much else. It fleetingly occurred to him that this silence between them was so... easy. He knew, from living with his father for fifteen years, that silences between two people could be uncomfortable and then some. And it had never been any better with Astrid, hence his brain's propensity to fill the silence with babbling, which usually ended making things even more embarrassing. Shouldn't a complete failure of a make-out session be _the_ ideal source of never-ending awkwardness between two teenagers?

And yet, it wasn't. Right at that moment, he didn't feel the need to speak at all. He just looked at her in wonder... because he could. Because he thought she was beautiful, she was _always_ beautiful, but right now she was so close and showed no signs of wanting to punch him for it. It was comfortable, and he didn't want to ruin it with unnecessary words.

She, however, seemed to have a different idea. "Hiccup, before..." she started, having finally decided to voice what she'd been thinking of for the past few minutes. She stumbled a little, biting her lip as she was most likely deciding how to phrase things correctly. Then, strengthening her resolve, she continued. "You said _'back.'_ You said you didn't want me to kiss you if I didn't love you _back_." She looked him straight in the eye. "What did you mean by that?"

_Wait, what?_ Her question caught him completely off-guard. Love him back? What? He hadn't— had he? He didn't remember saying that. Oh Thor almighty, please don't let him have said that. Don't let him have blurted it out without thinking. Don't let him have confessed his feelings to Astrid without even realizing it. "What— I— I didn't say that. You must've heard wrong," he said, perhaps a little too quickly, and his wide eyes and suddenly dry throat were surely going to give away the fact that he was panicking.

"I didn't. I have excellent hearing," she stated. Now she was no longer hesitant but rather expectant, looking at him as if daring him to avoid the question. And there she was, Astrid Hofferson, back in control. Relentless, unflappable. Never to give up until she got what she wanted.

Damn, if she kept looking at him like that she was going to drag the truth out of him sooner or later, and he couldn't have that. "Well— then— then maybe it just came out wrong! I, uh, I was angry, and babbling, and I didn't mean half the things that came out of my mouth. It was just... just saying something for the sake of it."

She shook her head, obstinate. "It wasn't. I've heard you babbling before, many times, and that wasn't it." She crossed her arms and practically pinned him in place with her stare. "So. What did it mean?"

Hiccup let out a groan of frustration, turning his gaze away from her with a frown. "Really, Astrid, do we have to do this now? It's really late, and you should probably go back to your house— your parents must be worried sick, and I don't want to get you in anymore trouble..."

"That's not going to work," she cut off his argument swiftly and efficiently. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me." She touched his closest forearm with her hand, drawing his attention back to her face. "Hiccup. I want to know." Her eyes were encouraging, almost pushing him to say it. "Why did you say you wanted me to love you back?"

He raised the arm she wasn't touching to his face, pressing the heel of his hand and fingers, respectively, against his eyes. He knew he couldn't get out of this one. Might as well just resign himself, prepare himself for rejection. "You _know_." He looked at her with a plea in his gaze, a plea for her not to make him do this. "Surely you _have_ to know." Because he'd been so obvious, so foolishly wore his emotions on his sleeve, that she had to have put two and two together by now. It's not like it was some big secret.

"Maybe I want to hear you say it," she retorted, and it came out as a whisper that sent a shudder down his spine.

It was his turn to look away from her and down at his lap, where his right hand was making a tight fist, as if holding onto a lifeline. He closed his eyes with a cringe, like he was about to be savagely pummeled. He swallowed hard. "I..." With one deep breath that he exhaled as a sigh, it was like the weight of all the nine realms just poured out of him. "I like you, okay? Like, stupidly so," he added, as if it warranted clarification. "I've liked you for ages. Probably since we were kids..."

He kept his eyes down. He didn't want to see what she looked like, didn't want to guess at what she was thinking. What would he see in her eyes? Anger, distress? Pity, maybe? He'd seen enough of that from her through the years, when the others made fun of him and she kept herself in the sidelines. He didn't want to see it now. "But I know... I know that you'll never feel that way about me, and that's okay, really. I'm not expecting anything from you. I mean, even though we're probably getting married— I have no expectations. None at all. Never have. And— and like you said, we're friends. Friends is good. Better than I had before, so I'm totally satisfied with friendship as far as, you know, _us_ is concerned. It's more than I could ever have hoped for, so yeah, friends is— friends is great. Just friends. Who just happen to be getting married. But— yeah, friends—"

"See, now _that's_ babbling," she pointed out, and since she was now responding to his words, he couldn't simply not look at her. He risked a glance at her face and saw none of what he'd been fearing. She looked... maybe a bit surprised, but mostly mildly amused. And not in the bad way either.

"Sorry," he muttered, almost feeling the color return to his face from the deathly pallor that had set in before. He told her how he felt about her, and she didn't run away in disgust, she didn't scream at him or hit him. That went far better than he ever expected.

Instead she smiled at him, just slightly. "It's okay. I'm used to it." He was sure he was blushing now. She didn't seem to mind his awkward confession, didn't seem to mind his feelings for her... No, seriously, was this a dream? Because there was no way this was actually happening to him.

There was silence again and, okay, this time it was a little awkward. Because, really, what could one say after having confessed to a girl that you've loved her for years? She'd already called him out on babbling, so he wasn't about to do it again. Thankfully, she solved that problem for him.

She patted him lightly on his forearm, which she hadn't let go of since before, and spoke up. "Well, you're right. It really is late. I should be getting back home." She stood up from the bed, moving forward to pick her coat up from the windowsill. "Hopefully my parents didn't realize I was out... I don't think my cover was a very good one."

He tried not to be disappointed that she had made no comment about his confession. He should be happy, really; he'd prefer her delicately avoiding saying anything rather than an outright rejection. He wanted things to stay normal between them, so he tried to stick to what felt normal— no grave-robbing this time. "Pillow under the furs?" he hazarded a guess, unable to hold back a chuckle when she nodded. "Well, I guess it depends on the parent," he added, recalling many times when the same trick had worked on his own father. Then again, that was Stoick; he often only saw what he wanted to see.

She shook her head as she put her coat on. "With the way my mother's been keeping a hawk's eye on me, I doubt it'll escape her notice," she said in an aggravated tone.

She turned to go out the window, which Hiccup surmised was the same way she'd come in, but something made her pause. She turned toward him again, and Hiccup just waited for her to say whatever it was she had in mind. "You know, I was going to punch you for the whole 'pushing me off' thing, but I think I can let it slide." She smirked. "Just don't let it happen again next time." And with that, she stood on the windowsill and in one step she was out of sight, still leaving Hiccup with the odd feeling that this whole thing could have been a dream.

Because surely he couldn't get so lucky, could he? Astrid making out with him voluntarily, and telling him she could do worse than him for a future husband, and not killing him when he confessed his feelings for her? No, these things did not happen in Hiccup Horrendous Haddock's life. The gods were not in the habit of making his life easy.

He changed into his sleepwear and pulled back the covers of his bed as if in a daze. And it was only as he laid his head down on his pillow that her parting words registered in his mind. _Wait a second... "next time"?_

Needless to say he didn't get much sleep that night.

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><p>.<p>

**Author's notes!—**

[1] Because the Vikings saw marriage as a financial transaction, three "payments" had to be made in order for a couple to get married, and these payments had to be agreed upon by both parties and specified in the marriage contract. The first was the bride-price, with which the groom compensates the bride's family for taking the bride (and her work) from the homestead; this literally gave the groom's clan the "legal guardianship" of the bride— that is, she goes from being part of her own family, to her husband's. The second payment was the dowry, which was given to the groom by the bride's family, and worked pretty much the same as any regular dowry in the rest of medieval Europe. One difference is that a Viking bride got to keep her dowry in the case of divorce. The third payment was the morning gift, which the groom gives the bride sort of as a "thank you" for giving him her virginity. Hence Hiccup's intense embarrassment when thinking about it. The axe Hiccup mentions is used in a fertility prayer, but I'll touch on that again in a future chapter. Fun fact: the largest morning gift ever was Denmark. Yes, as in the whole country.

[2] During the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom exchange swords; the bride's sword was provided by her family (in Astrid's case, it's a brand new one that her family ordered from the forge and Hiccup has to make), while the groom's sword had to have belonged to a dead ancestor, which the wife would then hold on to, to pass on to their children. The caveat here is that many Viking warriors (especially in the case of kings and chiefs) were buried with their weapons— meaning in many cases the groom would have to break into a burial mound in order to get the sword. Fun fact (I'm full of these today, haha): to avoid grave-robbing, the weapons were sometimes symbolically "killed" before being laid to rest with the warrior, so a lot of the Viking weapons found in modern times in burial mounds are bent.

Also, **a correction for one of my notes in the previous chapter:** a very helpful guest reviewer pointed out last time that the word "hell" can't come from the norse "Helheim" because Christians were using the word "hell" even before they were in contact with the Vikings. This is absolutely correct: it doesn't come _from_ "Helheim," but rather both words come from the same proto-Germanic root. So they're still related, just not directly. It was my mistake, but thanks so much to my guest reviewer for pointing it out!

**Re: Toothless' weight:** I had no idea there was an official weight assigned to him by Dreamworks! (Once again, thanks so much to the same guest reviewer for pointing this out— I came in late to the fandom so I missed a lot of this stuff). That said, I think I'd rather stick to my own guesstimate just because it makes more sense to my scientific brain. In the movie, Toothless basically crashes against Stoick, slams him to the ground and then puts his full weight on him; the man may be called "The Vast" but I don't think he would've been able to just walk out of that ring like nothing happened if Toothless were 1000+ lbs heavy. But either way, it's not an important detail, it's just a personal headcanon— you can go with the official weight or you can go with the one I suggested, for the purposes of that scene the only thing that mattered was that Toothless is a _lot_ heavier than Astrid and could've trampled her if he wasn't careful.

Hi, everybody! So what did you think of Hiccup and Astrid's first, erm, _close_ encounter? I hope their motivations and their feelings throughout came across well. I'm kinda nervous about that, so it'd be really lovely if you could review/comment and let me know if the characterization worked for you here. It would really help me know what I'm doing right and what I can improve on.

On that same vein, thank you so much for all your reviews, comments and kudos for the previous chapter. You are all awesome, and nothing makes me happier than responding to your enthusiasm and your questions. Thanks a million, and I hope to hear from all of you, and hopefully many new readers, as we go along with this story.

**In the next chapter:** Goodbyes, sword practice, and bets. Finally we get to hear from Snotlout, Tuffnut and Fishlegs and, well, when those three weigh in on the situation, things are bound to get a little crazy. I think you'll have as much fun reading it as I did writing it! xD

Once again, feel free to follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird) because sometimes I post snippets from future chapters there! See you next Tuesday! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 5_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

It worked out well for him, though, because he had to wake up before dawn anyway, to bring Toothless some food down at the cave. The dragon was so happy to see him that it made Hiccup's insides twist with guilt. Toothless nudged at his sides and jostled him around, clearly asking to go for an early morning flight. But Hiccup simply couldn't take him. Not only was it dangerous for him to be seen right now, but also his father was expecting him to be ready to head to the grove at first light. Toothless couldn't really understand why Hiccup wouldn't fly with him anymore, and it only made Hiccup even more determined to finish Toothless' new tail rig as soon as possible.

It was with a heavy heart that Hiccup joined his father, uncle and cousin to set out in search of an ancestral sword of the Haddock clan. As expected, the grave-robbing shot straight to the top of Hiccup's list of most uncomfortable experiences of his life, although Snotlout seemed to have a ball. And no wonder: he had a field day pointing out every five minutes how green Hiccup's face was getting. By the end there he was getting quite creative with the names of the particular shades of green, although "puke green" came up a few times, and was apparently meant as several different shades, indistinctly of the fact that the color of vomit depended on the content of one's stomach. (Hiccup would've pointed that out, but he was a bit busy keeping the contents of _his_ stomach in their rightful place).

Ancestral sword in hand, his father sat him down to tell him about the history of the Haddock clan, a family tree full of strong leaders who— surprise, surprise— were all the exact opposite of anything Hiccup had ever been. It was a long and involved, and possibly quite exaggerated retelling that took most of the afternoon, but Hiccup managed to sneak down to the forge after dinner with the excuse that he still had several wedding items to finish. Instead, he finished Toothless' tail rig.

He went to bed feeling conflicted. On the one hand, he was happy to fix the mistake he committed, which injured the dragon and started the entire chain of events that happened since. He was also relieved that the rig would allow Toothless to fly away to safety. On the other hand, he was well aware of what Toothless being able to leave the island meant: that tomorrow would probably be the last time he ever saw his friend.

He tried his best to not show his disappointment, but it was difficult, especially when Toothless himself didn't seem to be in a cheery mood either. When he went down to the cave with the rig and another basket of fish the next morning, he found the dragon's boundless energy from the previous day had been washed away by the midnight rain; two straight days being cooped up inside a dark and dreary cave had taken their toll on him.

"Really? You're going to be like that, after all the trouble I went through to get you this much cod?" Hiccup asked the creature after the third time Toothless haughtily turned his back on him. Apparently the dragon had decided that leaving him so many days without flying warranted at least a decent span of the silent treatment.

Hiccup regardless put the fish basket down in the ground. "I hope..." His words were interrupted by a heave as he kicked the container slightly to the side so that the fish would fall out; perhaps seeing the tasty morsels would make Toothless more cooperative. "I hope you didn't behave this way with Astrid. Sending her down to deal with a spoiled reptile is _not_ the best way to start a marriage."

It was that last sentence that got Toothless' attention. The dragon paused in his grumbling and looked back at Hiccup over his withers, with a curious/confused expression. Then, as if remembering he was supposed to be angry at the boy, he looked away again with a huff. It made Hiccup chuckle. "That's right, I hadn't told you about that, had I?" He walked a few steps and sat down against the wall of the cave, lying the rig down beside him. "I'm getting married. In three days. To Astrid."

Hiccup glared down at Toothless' tail, which was the only active occupant of the cave as it kept swishing from side to side. "Would you quit being a big baby and look at me? It's kind of difficult to have a heart-to-heart with your tail," the boy sentenced in a dry tone, though he was more amused than anything else.

The tail stopped moving as Toothless pretended to think about it. Finally he decided to stop with the wounded act and turned to look at Hiccup as he spoke, though he made sure to lay down on the ground with a little more force than necessary, seemingly to make a point that he still considered himself the slighted party.

Mud splashed the boy's pants, but Hiccup let him have that as a small victory. "Thanks, bud," he called out, laying a hand on one of Toothless' front legs as the creature turned its big, innocent green eyes toward him in endless curiosity. "Not that getting married to Astrid is a bad thing, it's just... I don't really know how to feel about it. On the surface it seems like I'm getting everything I ever wanted and never thought I would get. But I didn't want it this way. I didn't want to be forced into it. I didn't want _her_ to be forced into it."

The dragon's expression softened, and Hiccup could see that he understood that whatever they were talking about, it was serious. Toothless cooed at him, slightly nudging Hiccup's hand with his snout in an attempt to be comforting. Hiccup pet his head in return. "Thanks for the sympathy, but I think by now I'm just... resigned to it? We both are, probably." He shook his head. "I tried everything I could think of to get out of it. But now the _handsal_ is done, and the contract is sealed, so there's nothing we can do about it." He shrugged despondently.

"I thought about running away," the boy admitted, looking down at his lap. "That's always the easiest option, isn't it? Just get on your saddle and fly away. That way she won't have to be tied to me for the rest of her life. But I..." He frowned, then shook his head. "I could never shame her like that. She's important to me, she... she's _so_ important."

He lightly scratched the dragon behind his ears. "Have you ever felt that way, bud? I guess you can't really understand this part. _Are_ there any lady night furies out there, even?" He pondered the question for a few seconds, before shaking his head to keep himself from spiraling out of topic. "I just... I just want her to be happy. I want to _make_ her happy. Even if she divorces me one month in, if we _have_ to get married then I'm going to try my hardest to give her everything she deserves and more. I can't afford to let anything go wrong, not with Astrid."

The oddest thing happened: something in his words seemed to almost _alarm_ Toothless, making him stand up as if bitten. Before Hiccup could ask what was wrong, the creature was bouncing around the small cave, shuffling in the corners, almost like he was looking for something. "Hey, hey, buddy, what is it?" Hiccup intervened, attempting to calm down the suddenly agitated dragon. "Did I say something wro— whoa!" he cut himself short with a yelp as Toothless jumped over his legs in his haste to examine the other side of the cave.

The dragon was scraping at the ground with the tip of his nose, his claws, and it was starting to make Hiccup worry. Normally Toothless wasn't this evasive. "Is it..." Hiccup tried to wrack his brain to think of anything he might've said to upset the dragon. He'd just mentioned Astrid. That was all. "Is it Astrid?" he asked, confused.

It couldn't be, though; when he started talking about her, Toothless had been quite calm and even sympathetic. It was only when he said that nothing could go wrong with Astrid that the creature started acting up. "She didn't mention anything the last time we spoke..." He couldn't help but blush as he remembered that the last time they saw each other involved more than _just_ speaking. "Did something happen with Astrid?"

Toothless must've heard the trepidation in his voice, because finally he stopped twitching about and turned to Hiccup, looking almost apologetic. That worried Hiccup even more. "Did she say something about... about me? Us? Our marriage, I mean." Toothless stared at Hiccup with big, humid, guilty eyes, like a puppy who destroyed his owner's boots and got caught. "What is it?" His response was nothing but a whine. Hiccup sighed. "Man, it's in times like these that I really wish you could speak, bud."

Toothless kept on letting out soft wails, looking at Hiccup with his head hanging low. Hiccup scratched him around the neck, trying to make the creature feel better. "I'm sure whatever it is, it's not a big deal. Astrid seemed fine last night. I wouldn't worry about it." He nodded in the direction of the fish. "Now, there's some delicious cod right there, waiting for you to try it. I've got a present for you, but I have to set it up first, so I'll do that while you eat, okay?"

The dragon still seemed a little hesitant, but in the end he couldn't resist the pull of the fish. While he was turned around to eat, Hiccup set about detaching complex saddle system Toothless was already wearing and attaching the new tail rig. It seemed to fit well, as far as he could see, but he wouldn't know until he saw it in action.

Focused as he was on the fish, it took a couple of minutes for Toothless to realize what Hiccup was doing. When he finally took notice, though, the reaction was instantaneous: his head snapped up, and he turned a bewildered expression toward the foreign contraption on his tail, then to Hiccup, then to his tail again. Hiccup watched with baited breath as he tentatively stretched his tail fin open— the prosthetic one Hiccup made stretching as well— and then contracted it, repeatedly. "See?" Hiccup signaled to the rig with the brightest smile he could muster. "Now you can fly on your own again. You don't need to wait around for me anymore."

Toothless looked up at Hiccup again, with big, teary green eyes looking decidedly downcast. He let out a low whimper, and it went straight to Hiccup's heart. He had expected— he had _hoped_— that Toothless would be happy at the prospect of regaining full mobility. Giddy, even. He wasn't counting on the dragon being sad. He didn't feel he could deal with Toothless' sorrow on top of his own.

"No, no, pal, this is a good thing," he tried to cheer the creature up. He moved closer, cradling the dragon's face in his hands. "It's not that I don't want to go riding with you anymore, it's just... Berk isn't safe for you at the moment." He shook his head. "No one's coming this far into the forest right now, but the day of the wedding, there will be too many people, all of them drunk and rowdy, and I can't keep track of all of them or keep them away from this cave. This will give you the chance to fly away if anything... scary... happens."

He leaned his forehead against Toothless', closing his eyes. "Besides, it never should've come to this. It's my fault that you lost your tailfin in the first place. You're meant to be out there, in the skies... not stuck inside a dreary cave. It's not natural."

Toothless grunted and shook his head emphatically, making the boy have to step back a bit. Hiccup frowned at him. "No, really. It's not that I want you to go away, because I really, really don't. You're my best friend, buddy," he told the creature, a hand softly patting his scaly neck. His voice broke a little, and he looked down, disheartened, at his feet and Toothless', which couldn't be more different. He felt the dragon nudge him with his snout. "I just want you to be safe. And for as long as you want to hang around, I'll come visit you, and so will Astrid—"

He knew right away that it had been a mistake to mention Astrid, when the creature once again tensed up and started acting erratically. "No, Toothless— hey— don't start that again—" But the next thing he knew, Toothless had broken into a skipping run toward the mouth of the cave. Ignoring the bushes and other plants that were covering the entrance like they weren't even there, the dragon made his way outside, stretched his wings, and before Hiccup could even gasp, he was airborne. The boy ran outside, frantic, only to see the night fury become nothing but a black dot against the light blue of the Berk sky.

"...Goodbye, bud," he mumbled, choked, trying to tell himself that this was a good thing, no matter how hollow he felt inside.

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Hiccup wasn't normally one to hold grudges, but in these circumstances, he thought the ancient Haddock hunk of metal he was currently holding in his hand was fully deserving of all the contempt he could muster.

He just didn't get it. He'd sharpened the sword himself that morning, as sharp as anything he'd ever sharpened without chipping the blade. And the stupid post he was hacking at (or trying to hack at), was it magic or something? He didn't get it. Wasn't metal supposed to be stronger than wood? That's why they had to keep constantly rebuilding their houses, wasn't it? (Well, that and dragon fire, but he didn't feel like giving the wood that much credit right at that moment).

So _why. Wouldn't. It. Go. In._ [1]

He raised his sword arm again, and swung. The sword bounced right back the way it came, almost tipping him off balance. That was his seventeenth attempt, and the best he'd managed was to chip off a small piece of wood off the plank. He bet it was just that the sword was poorly designed; clearly there hadn't been many good blacksmiths back when his Haddock ancestors had this sword made.

He frowned down at the weapon again. Intellectually speaking, he knew there was nothing wrong with it; as far as he could tell it was very well-designed, and in remarkably good condition for being half-buried for so long. But Hiccup had been in a bad mood even before this swing-fest began, so if his forefathers decided to smite him for speaking ill of their blacksmiths, then so be it. At least that would get him out of embarrassing himself, and what was worse, his future wife, in front of the entire village.

Mind you, he thought he was well within his rights to be upset right now. The entire village kept looking at him like he was some sort of craven, he hadn't seen nor heard from Toothless in two days, and then there was the whole forced marriage thing. So yeah, it was no wonder he found himself in such a cheery disposition. And on top of that...

"Was that number twenty? Hah, I knew it! Pay up, Jorgenson!"

...The present company didn't really help.

"Actually, if my count is correct, that would be number eighteen," Fishlegs pointed out as a response to Tuffnut's exclamation.

Hiccup let out a frustrated sigh. "Don't you guys have somewhere else to be?" He turned to look at them, gesturing to... all of Berk with his hands. "Like anywhere else but here?"

The trio paid him no mind. Both Fishlegs and Tuffnut, along with Snotlout, were sitting on a stretch of fence a few feet behind Hiccup, watching him practice. Fishlegs had stopped by to wish him good luck for the wedding; since he was unmarried himself, he wasn't allowed into the ritual bath [2] and as such, wouldn't see Hiccup again until the ceremony. Snotlout came with, most likely for the entertainment value of seeing his cousin fail repeatedly at sticking a sword into a wooden post. And Tuffnut... well, Hiccup couldn't even pretend to understand what Tuffnut was thinking half the time, but for whatever reason, the twin had tagged along as well.

And now his misery had devolved into some kind of betting pool. "I told you, man, I'm not betting on a practice run," Snotlout replied with a huff. "Save it for tomorrow, it'll be more interesting to see whether he manages to stab the post at the wedding or not."

"But those are 50-50 odds," Fishlegs intervened again. When both Snotlout and Tuffnut turned to him with clueless expressions, he elaborated. "That means in order for this bet to actually be viable, one of you is going to have to bet on Hiccup actually being able to stick the sword into the post."

Snotlout and Tuffnut blinked in unison, and then turned to each other with a grimace. "I think we're gonna have a problem here," Snotlout sentenced. Hiccup looked at them from over his shoulder and rolled his eyes.

Tuffnut remained put-off for about a fraction of a second before shrugging his shoulders with disinterest. "Whatever, dude. Either way I told _you_, I won't bet on anything from the ceremony tomorrow 'cause I won't be there to make sure that you aren't swindling me."

"You're not going to the ceremony?" Fishlegs asked, making it sound like it was some kind of affront for Tuffnut not to be present at Hiccup's wedding. In reality, Hiccup wondered to himself why would that even be a surprise to the larger boy. Sure, the three of them had been including Hiccup more into their activities than they had before, but that was only because they— Tuffnut and Snotlout especially— were impressed by his so-called "prowess" in the kill ring. It wasn't like they were friends, not really. And personally, Hiccup would rather Tuffnut not be present at his wedding; less chance of something exploding that way.

He tried to tune the other boys out and focus on the task at hand. He looked down at the sword, calculating, and then at the wooden pole. If the point of this exercise was to embed the sword into the pole, couldn't he get a saw, make an indentation and fit the sword into it? He might not have brute strength on his side, but didn't he get points for originality? Of course, these were Vikings he was talking about, so probably not.

Unfortunately for him, Tuffnut was pretty much impossible to tune out when he wanted to make himself heard. "Nope. I'll make it back for the feast, but first I have to go on a mission to get me some firewater." Fishlegs and Snotlout raised their eyebrows in surprise (and probably amusement). Everybody knew what "firewater" meant, of course; the adults used the moniker often when they were in a rowdy mood. But Tuffnut seemed to believe using the term made him cooler. He must've thought the rest didn't get it, because he kept throwing out euphemism after odd euphemism. "You know, find me some liquid courage. Indulge in a drop o' the pure. Or as my old man would say, have me a wee dram," he finished, trying to imitate the accent. He couldn't.

The other two young men were still staring at him— now with deadpan expressions— as Tuffnut kept getting more and more creative with his alcohol parlance. Seeing no reaction from the two vikings, he frowned. "Booze. I'm talkin' about booze," he declared, as if gravely disappointed that nobody knew what he was talking about. Hiccup had to hold back from rolling his eyes.

"I've been sneaking barrels of ale from the Great Hall for a while," he added, now back to his previous excitement. "Thought I'd save them for a special time, and what better time than the day when Hiccup, my man, gets hitched? We can take the barrels down to the hill behind the Hall, and get totally plastered! It'll be _awesome_."

"But I thought you parents had forbid you from drinking," Fishlegs pointed out smartly. It was true that at fourteen and fifteen years of age, they were all considered mature enough to drink alcohol at their leisure, but the Thorstons— the entire village, really— had wisely decided Tuffnut and Ruffnut were difficult enough to handle while they were sober, so nobody was in a hurry to see how they would act when intoxicated and uninhibited. Hence the order for the both of them to stay away from any and all alcoholic beverages available on Berk and its surrounding areas.

Tuffnut didn't seem too concerned with the restriction, however. He shrugged again. "Meh, what they don't know won't hurt 'em." Hiccup, now midway through his nineteenth swing, begged to differ, although he didn't comment out loud. Half the danger of the Thorston twins' hijinks was that they never saw them coming. "Yo, 'Lout, maybe we can bet on a drinking game instead!"

Snotlout scowled at that idea. "No way," he responded with a sharp shake of his head. "We'll both end up passed out and won't remember anything, and I'm not letting _you_ swindle _me_. There's no swindling the Snotmeister," he said, pointing to himself with his thumb.

Tuffnut guffawed at the nickname; Snotlout ignored him like a pro. He puffed out his chest and crossed his arms with that self-aggrandizing attitude he always seemed to have. "I still say we bet on the sword swing. It's way more clear-cut."

Tuffnut let out a huff and raised his arms as if in defeat. "Okay, fine! We'll bet on the stupid sword swing. But you better make the stakes good!" He scratched at his temple for a second, as if contemplating other demands to make. "Oh, and I won't just take your word for it! 'Legs here can tell me how it really went."

"Do I get a cut of your winnings?" Fishlegs asked, more than likely eager at the prospect of being included in the twosome's plans.

Tuffnut snorted. "Ha, ha! You're funny," was all he said, patting Fishlegs on his beefy shoulder. The larger blond's eagerness quickly morphed into a pout.

He got over it quickly enough, though, as he turned to Snotlout with another question. "Does that mean you're going to wager that Hiccup will successfully embed the sword into the wooden post?" he asked, going back to the previous issue they'd had with this, which hadn't been fully addressed by the betting parties.

Snotlout groaned, clearly having forgotten about that. Then he thought about it for two seconds before pushing himself off the fence. "Alright, I'll bite," he said, his tone indicating getting that admission out of him was like pulling teeth. He started walking toward Hiccup. "Come on, cuz. I'll teach you how to swing the damn sword."

Hiccup looked at him warily. "...Why?" he asked, with a grimace. He wouldn't put it past his cousin to teach him something completely wrong just to get him to make an even bigger fool of himself in front of everyone. "I thought you were still mad at me." Actually, "mad" was a bit of an embellishment. Snotlout had been pretty much moping all over Berk since the moment the marriage was announced.

Snotlout snorted. "Yeah, well, I can't say I'm happy that you _stole my girl_," he pointed out with a glower. Hiccup rolled his eyes. His cousin may live in his own little world of fantasy, but everybody else on the island knew that, regardless of whether there was another man in the picture or not, Astrid was never going to end up with Snotlout. This fact tended to go right over said Viking's head, though. "But I can't in good conscience let you embarrass yourself, and Astrid, in front of the entire tribe," he continued. "I mean, even more than usual," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Oy, since when do _you_ have a conscience?" Tuffnut interjected from behind them.

"Hey, I can be nice if I want to!" Snotlout exclaimed, turning around to glare at the male Thorston. As if they didn't all know his sudden bout of generosity was motivated exclusively by monetary gain. "Besides, now that my main competition is about to be tied down with the ol' ball and chain, all the other girls will be flocking to— you guessed it: this guy," he finished with a smirk, once again pointing at himself, this time with both his thumbs.

"Since when am I your main competition?" Hiccup asked, flabbergasted that Snotlout would ever consider him competition for _anything_... because this was Snotlout, who thought himself nothing short of a direct descendant of Baldr. [3] Him deeming any of the teens to be competition was probably a sign that Ragnarök was coming. Were there any giant red roosters flying around? [4]

"No, he actually has a point!" Tuffnut intervened again, from the back, and Hiccup turned to look at him as well. "I mean, on your own merit you probably wouldn't be much competition at all, what with the always-messing-up thing, and the losing-half-our-harvest thing, and the weakest-Viking-ever-in-the-whole-history-of-Berk thing— no offense, of course—"

"...And _how_ is that not offensive?" Hiccup sputtered.

Tuffnut didn't seem to hear him. "—But being the son of the Chief carries a lot of weight, plus there's the fact that you're like filthy rich and all." He nodded, more to himself than anything else. "So yeah, I'd say you'd have a fair shot of scoring a decent contract. Now that you're taken, though, the girls will have to start looking at the rest of us, right?"

Snotlout nodded, in agreement. "And by 'the rest of us,' he means me," he added, once again doing the pointing-to-himself thing. If Hiccup hadn't been used to his cousin's arrogance after so many years, he would be getting mightily annoyed by his antics by then.

"And by 'the girls,' he means... just Ruffnut," Fishlegs pointed out in a shaky tone. He was wide-eyed and looked kind of nervous at the realization. Well, Hiccup couldn't blame him; if he had found out his only chance at finding a wife fell on the craziest, most unpredictable girl on the island, well... he would be scared, too.

Tuffnut and Snotlout snapped to attention when Fishlegs' words finally registered in their heads. Snotlout's eyebrows rose on his forehead, startled. Tuffnut's face turned green. "Oh, ewww!" he exclaimed, probably having put two and two together and figuring out that there would actually be guys trying to woo his sister.

A second later, he seemed to realize what Ruffnut being the last of Berk's scarce and scary single ladies meant for _him_. [5] "Aw, man! If my sister's the last girl in our age group, what am _I_ going to do? Where am I going to deposit the fruit of my loins?" he questioned, gesturing to his general crotch area. He deftly ignored the other guys' disgusted exclamations of "ewww!" and continued in the same over-dramatic tone. "The Thorston line is doomed!"

"You have other brothers, you eedjit," Snotlout snapped at him, still looking a little green from the mere mention of "Tuffnut" and "loins" in the same sentence. "And _you_," he said, turning to point an accusing finger toward Fishlegs, who was startled at the sudden animosity. "Don't. Even. Think about it."

Fishlegs frowned at him. The larger teen was a gentler soul, and he would usually just humor Snotlout to avoid confrontation, but this time, Hiccup didn't think he was intimidated enough to back down.

As relieving as it would be to have Snotlout direct his jibes at someone else who was not him, he _was_ kind of on a schedule here. "You said you'd be willing to teach me how to swing the sword, Snotlout?" he reminded everyone. Normally he would stay far, far away from any offer his cousin made to teach him anything, but this time he was desperate, and even he had to admit Snotlout wasn't bad at all with a sword.

"Right, yeah, and you sure need a _lot_ of help," Snotlout replied, though he was still glaring at Fishlegs as he did. Hiccup shook his head; if he wasn't sure Snotlout was doing this purely for personal and economic gain, he might be overcome by his cousin's affectionate warmth... not.

With a last "I'm watching you" gesture to the larger boy, Snotlout finally turned to Hiccup. "Okay, show me your stance, then." Hiccup attempted to pull the sword up and to his side ("attempted" being the key word— the damn thing was heavy!) and once again turned to his cousin as if asking for an assessment.

Snotlout walked around him, as if trying to check the stance from every angle. When he was once again in front of Hiccup, he looked down at the skinnier boy with an expression that looked like a cross of a frown and a grimace. "Why are you holding the sword in your left hand?"

Hiccup groaned. _That's_ the first thing he noticed? "I'm left-handed," he replied, in a dry tone. Because, you know, stuff like which hand you wrote with or ate with was something you'd expect a person who's known you for the last fifteen years and _is related to you_ would know.

This time Snotlout's expression turned into full-on grimace. "Well, there's your problem," he muttered, presumably under his breath, but everyone could hear him anyway. [6] Hiccup had to roll his eyes again. How many times was that, in the last fifteen minutes?

Fortunately for him, Snotlout didn't seem interested in correcting his terrible mistake of being born with a dominant left hand. "Okay, here's what you do: you're going to keep your left leg back, and pivot your weight on your right leg," he said, showing Hiccup the correct stance, which he awkwardly but correctly imitated. "Right. You wouldn't do it that way when you're in an actual fight because you'd be holding a shield, too. But of course you're not ever going to be in an actual fight or anything. And since you won't have a shield tomorrow, this is your best shot. The pivoting means your arm moves in a wider arc, and that gives you more impulse..."

The practice session went by relatively smoothly, with only an average amount of teasing and jeering to be had. By the time they were off to the Great Hall for dinner, Hiccup had successfully managed to embed the sword into the post. Not terribly deep, because he still had all the brute strength of a toothpick and Snotlout was not a miracle worker, but at least the thing didn't just bounce back, or worse: bounce back _at him_. He was now moderately confident he could pull it off at the feast the next day.

And that was the last item on his list of preparations. Now all that was left to do was... to get married.

No big deal, right?

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] As part of Norse wedding traditions, just prior to the start of the wedding feast, the groom had to plunge his new sword (the one he got from his wife in the sword exchange) into one of the supporting pillars of the hall or house they were in; they believed that the deeper the sword went into the pillar, the better their marriage would be. It was essentially a sign of the virility of the husband, a sign of how fruitful the couple would be in terms of children. Through my reading I've seen it described in a few different ways: some sources say the groom stabbed the pillar with the sword as one would a knife, and others say he swung the sword into the pillar. I decided to go with the latter just to give Hiccup a better chance (I've never tried this, but I'd figure stabbing stuff with a sword is _hard_, yo).

[2] Much like the ritual bath for the bride, the groom also underwent his own cleansing, to "wash his single status off." The village's married men would join in to share their experiences and give him advice for his marriage, about sex, raising children, managing his farm, or a multitude of other related topics.

[3] Baldr was the Norse god of light and purity, son of Odin and Frigg. He's kind of the Norse equivalent to the greek god Apollo: he's one of the most beloved, the handsomest, he has the coolest hall, he has the coolest boat... he was so important, his death was prophesized to be the first sign of Ragnarök. Yep, you heard that right: losing Baldr literally meant the end of the world was coming. He was that big. Let me put it this way: if the gods had to choose a Prom King, Baldr would totally win the title. No wonder Snotlout wants to be just like him, haha.

[4] Speaking of the signs of Ragnarök, it was said that a series of beautiful red roosters would fly over the nine realms, letting the inhabitants know that Ragnarök was coming. Granted, when I think about them I tend to imagine them more as these majestic, glowing, phoenix-type beings, but the direct translation from old Norse is "rooster" so that is the word Hiccup uses here.

[5] I'm quoting HTTYD/HTTYD2 director Dean DeBlois here! I love the way he put it so much, I had to use it.

[6] As far as I've read, there's no concrete evidence that Vikings had any sort of bias against left-handedness, like other cultures of the time had. Still, I believe Hiccup was made left-handed in the movies as something symbolic of him being different from the "norm," just like his lack of physical strength was. I wanted to honor those little details they took the time to add to make the movie more layered, hence this little scene.

Hi, guys! I am so sorry this chapter is two days late. We're rearranging furniture and appliances here in my house, and since my brother is currently on crutches, guess who's spent the last two days lugging stuff around with zero time to use the computer? -points to self- You guessed it: this girl. ;) Please don't hate me for the delay. The next chapter should be up right on schedule next Tuesday.

I loved writing this chapter, mainly because I love the friendship between Hiccup and Toothless, and I have a soft spot for all the HTTYD boys. Tuffnut is my favorite, I had so much fun writing the entire last scene. xD I hope you liked it! We'll see Astrid again in the next chapter, though, no worries.

I got such lovely, lovely reviews for the previous chapter, I just want to give you all a BIG HUG. I'm psyched you guys are liking this story so far. So thank you all so much for reading, and even those of you who don't review but leave kudos or add the story to your favorites/alerts, it never fails to make my day! Don't be afraid to leave your comments, even if it's just to say "Hi, I'm reading your story!" I love interacting with my readers, so no need to be shy.

**In the next chapter:** The wedding is on... and by "on" I mean up in flames. Let's just say Hiccup and Astrid never imagined their wedding feast would involve fireworks.

As always, feel free to follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird). Sometimes I post snippets from future chapters there. See you next Tuesday! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 6_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

And to think Astrid had been freaking out about her _wedding night_. Really, with the way her luck had been going lately, she should've known something else was bound to go wrong.

Not that her upcoming transition from maidenhood into the life of a wife wasn't a perfectly acceptable reason for her to be freaking out. In fact, she was sure any other girl in her position would be freaking out about a hundred other things when it came to the huge, upcoming changes in her life. It was only normal.

Astrid wasn't just any other girl, though. Over the past week, she had mostly come to terms with the idea that she was getting married. She came to the realization that she didn't mind too much. It wasn't like her chores would become much different than they were at her family home, and she'd already lived most of her life with two members of the male gender, and dealt with all the gross, frustrating and annoying aspects of living with boys. How different could the Haddocks possibly be?

And it wasn't like her being married would require her to stop training or become some sort of demure milkmaid; Hiccup himself had said that she could become a wife _and_ be the best shieldmaiden Berk had ever seen if she set her mind to it, and she definitely had her mind set to it. If anything, becoming the Chief's daughter-in-law only made her more determined to earn a position of respect among her tribesmen: not only did she have a duty to honor her clan now, but because she would be a part of the Haddock clan, she also had a duty to honor and protect all of Berk. [1]

True, she would be expected to have children eventually, and she wasn't ready for it yet, but it wasn't like she _never_ wanted kids. She'd just never really thought about it. And from their last conversation, she was reasonably certain that Hiccup wasn't ready for children either. Berk was a lot more progressive about those things than most other Viking tribes were, anyway, [2] so she figured they'd cross that bridge when they got to it.

Speaking of Hiccup, though, getting used to the idea that she would be marrying _him_ was perhaps the easiest part of her week. She wasn't lying when she told him she didn't really have any objections to him in particular. She was lucky she would be marrying someone she was already... drawn to. Most girls didn't have that luxury. She liked to think that she would have eventually realized how much she liked him, even without the marriage contract.

Once you got past all the awkwardness, Hiccup was really one of a kind, in the good sense of the term. He was smart, compassionate, funny, and even kind of cute, in an overtly-curious puppy kind of way. (If puppies could speak and made sarcastic comments seven out of ten times they opened their mouths, that is). She didn't mind that he couldn't lift a sword (not that she wouldn't try to get him to train, at least a little) or that he didn't have the hulking, muscle-y frame the stereotypical Viking was supposed to have; she was fairly lean herself, and she rather liked that he was skinny, as it made it easier for her to wrap her arms around him if she wanted to.

And speaking of wrapping her arms (and other appendages) around him... there was the making out. For someone who admittedly had no previous experience of it, he was not a bad kisser at all. Well, when he pushed past the surprise of being kissed, of course; she did kind of spring it on him. But he really wasn't half bad at it. She rather thought she'd like to try that again.

And he loved her. Had loved her for a long time. She'd be lying if she said that didn't bring a smile to her face.

Don't get her wrong: it wasn't that she was suddenly okay with other people making major life decisions for her, because she wasn't. She was definitely going to be glaring at her mother every time they crossed paths for the next few... years or so. But just because she was being forced into this didn't mean she had to be unhappy about her new lot in life. She was Astrid Hofferson, she would make her life her own no matter what circumstances she was forced into. And somehow, knowing that she would be in this with Hiccup, the whole prospect of marriage didn't seem so daunting.

Her wedding night, on the other hand... well. It's not that she was scared of sex— she was a Hofferson, and Hoffersons weren't scared of anything. Besides, that stuff happened every day, so it couldn't be that bad, right? Otherwise why would everyone want to do it so much? No, it couldn't be that bad. Still, it was... an unknown. And Astrid didn't like going into anything unprepared. It made her uneasy.

Now, marital relations wasn't something she could train for, but it was something she could get instruction on. So she had walked into her ritual cleansing that morning with her head held high, determined as ever, and intending to actually learn something. However, the purifying bath proved to be both mortifying and completely unhelpful.

Granted, the main topic of conversation in such events _was_ sex, so she had been expecting some degree of embarrassment (she might be eager to learn, but that didn't mean she was comfortable hearing it spoken out loud and in the open like they were discussing the weather). What she wasn't expecting was for every single piece of would-be advice to be cut short because _every single woman present thought she already had the practical experience_.

It had all been "You know, the first time can be a lot easier on a girl if you just— oh, but Astrid won't have that problem tonight, silly me..." or "The key for a man to become putty in your hands is to... well, I'm sure these two have already tried that, kids are so creative these days..." And then her mother kept making snide remarks at her the whole time, not just about the rumors, but also for having "confirmed" them with the absence of her _kransen_. The combination of the two things had already driven Astrid to frustration before they could even whip out the bath oils, not to mention kept her blushing throughout the entire event; she swore the water around her was actually boiling just from how warm her face got. She'd take a hundred conversations about love nests with Ruffnut over this group of gossipy, bawdy women who didn't even let her get a word in edgewise.

Needless to say, her anxiety about her wedding night was not abated. The one thing that made her feel slightly better about it was that Hiccup stuttered and blushed so much as he laid the hammer on her lap for the fertility prayer [3], that it was more than obvious he was even less ready for the consummation of their marriage than she was. Clearly nothing was going to happen when they were taken to bed that night; frankly, she was thinking of coming up with some excuse that would buy them some time, maybe a few weeks, to ease into that kind of intimacy.

The rest of the ceremony was much the same: awkward, yet also endearing— not only in her opinion, but also for the rest of the attendees, if the "awwws" uttered by the women and the amused chuckles coming from the men were any indication. Everything had gone right for the most part, though, as befitting of the wedding of the son of the Chief: swords were exchanged, blessings were recited, nobody had tripped on anything yet (although there were a few close calls during the run from the cove to the Great Hall [4]), and Hiccup actually managed to embed a sharp weapon into a post to a decent depth (he was the most surprised of them all, to be sure).

Now they were married, and... it hadn't quite sunk in for her, yet. It wasn't that she wasn't aware this was her wedding; that fact was ever-present in her mind, in the little things: her bridal crown made her head itch, her dress was still spotty from being sprinkled with water at the cove [5], and she bumped elbows with Hiccup every time either of them moved. Them sitting next to each other didn't feel weird; they were friends, after all. But she didn't feel like a _wife_. Maybe it would hit her sometime soon, but not yet. The feeling of wearing a ring on her finger still startled her when she moved her hand to pick up her cup of mead...

...which was exactly what she had been doing when the entire Great Hall erupted into chaos.

The Chief— _Stoick,_ she reminded herself; he was her father-in-law and she should call him Stoick— had just called for all those present to feast in celebration of the newlyweds, food and drink just beginning to be passed around, and she and Hiccup were supposed to pour each other's mead and drink the cloyingly sweet beverage as a symbol of their union. Then the doors opened with a strident screech and their movements stopped, cups halfway to their mouths, as they stared at Tuffnut Thorston's terrified face when he burst into the Hall screaming, so loudly that it could be heard clearly over the natural hubbub of the party: "DRAGOOOOOOOON! Dragon, in the foreeeeeest!" [6]

Berk was nothing if not a village of warriors; every Viking in the room was on their feet, weapons at the ready and letting loose a barrage of questions in the time it took the poor, frightened young man to take a breath. Eager fighters tried to out-loud each other in the hopes of getting some information about this supposed dragon; "Where did you see it?," "Were there any others?!," "Is it a raid?!" and "Was it going to attack the village?!" were the most common inquiries, with plenty of interjections of "Those nasty buggers!" thrown in between the more legitimate questions.

Tuffnut could struggle with too many questions at once even in the best of days when he _wasn't_ shaken to within an inch of his life. "In the forest. No. I don't think so. I dunno, I didn't ask." Astrid snorted; she didn't think he was being sarcastic with that last one.

Fishlegs pushed to the front of the crowd, coming up right in front of Tuffnut, and looking entirely too excited about a possible dragon attack. "Did you get a good look at it? What did it look like? What kind of dragon was it?" he asked the male twin, eagerly.

"I dunno, man, it was like nothing I've ever seen! It was black, looked really slick and evil and it scared the crap out of me!" Tuffnut explained, his voice cracking, as he made gestures with his hands in an attempt to better describe the beast to the rest of the people present. It didn't really help.

"Black and evil... was it a nightmare? Are there black nightmares?" Fishlegs asked, and it sounded more like he was posing the questions to himself, but Tuffnut replied either way.

"No, it wasn't a nightmare," he said, shaking his head so emphatically that his helmet, which was already lopsided on his head, teetered from side to side with a clanging noise.

"Perhaps a gronckle? Some gronckles have darker hides, it may have looked black in the shade..." Fishlegs tried again.

"No, not a gronckle."

"A thunderdrum, maybe?"

"Nope, don't think so."

"Or it could be a... oh gods, could it be a skrill?"

"Nah. Wait. What's a skrill?"

"It doesn't matter what it is," intervened Snotlout in a frustrated tone, also pushing to the front of the crowd and standing near the other two boys. "A dragon is a dragon. Why didn't you just kill it?" he asked, drawing one of his hands into a fist and punching the palm of his other hand, as if that's what he would do if he were facing the dragon in question.

Tuffnut looked at him with a comically blank expression. "Dude, have you _met_ me? I barely passed dragon training!" And Astrid had to admit he was right. It's not that Tuffnut was weak, or unskilled, or that he couldn't handle a weapon like they'd often teased Hiccup about back before he started doing better in the kill ring. When it came to the twins, it was more that they had very short attention spans and most of the time would end up brawling with each other rather than with the dragon. Not exactly what you'd expect of an expert dragon killer, but with the way raids had been increasing recently, Berk needed more fighters, no matter how easily distracted they were. That was just about the only reason why the two Thorstons had been declared as having successfully completed Gobber's training... or at least they would've been if the official end of the training hadn't been postponed.

She heard a scoff coming from beside her and turned to see Hiccup pretty much voice her own thoughts out loud. "Well, he's got a point," he said, sounding more matter-of-fact than sarcastic. Astrid realized she was looking down at him, because he was still sitting. She didn't even notice she had stood up when Tuffnut came into the Hall screaming; her instinctual reaction to rush for a weapon and charge was hard to shake, even though she knew she didn't want to kill dragons anymore. Hiccup had never had that instinct, and the surprise interruption of the feast hadn't sprung him to his feet, but his hand was holding onto the armrest of his chair tightly and she could see that there was a tension to his stance.

He must've noticed she was staring at him, as he turned to look up at her. It was only when his green eyes met hers that it hit her, the reason why he was suddenly so alert: the description Tuffnut had given Fishlegs... a black dragon, somewhere in the forest... but surely it couldn't be...

Before Fishlegs or Snotlout could formulate any other inane questions, Stoick himself made his way to the center of the crowd. "Alright, alright, that's enough," he boomed out, effectively shutting up not only the three young men, but the entire assembly. That was the way things were on Berk: when the Stoick the Vast spoke, everybody listened. "Tell us... uh, Thorston boy," he started, clearly not knowing Tuffnut's name, but nobody made a comment about it. The twins had caused so much property damage in their fourteen years of life, it was no wonder the Chief would rather pretend they didn't exist. "Where did you see this dragon?"

Tuffnut went stiff in an attempt to impress the Chief. "In the forest, sir!" he replied, staunchly. "It was poking around near a small cave on the cliff side on the north side of the island! Sir!" He was making such a production out of it that his voice cracked on the last word.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other, alarmed. Yes, that definitely sounded like the place where they'd hidden Toothless. Astrid cursed internally; Tuffnut was as unpredictable as they came, and she should've known to avoid any location he'd been known to frequent, even though Ruffnut had assured her that had been years ago and the cave would be deserted now.

"Did it attack you?" Stoick continued to question Tuffnut, everybody around them paying close attention.

"No, sir!" Tuffnut replied, shaking his head emphatically. Then he paused, thinking. "I think it saw me, though. But I didn't stick around long enough for it to jump me, I ran for it as soon as I saw it," he said with a small, rather smug laugh. "I happen to be the fastest, bestest runner in my dragon training class, you see..."

Astrid held back a scoff. It wasn't _completely_ untrue; she thought Hiccup was probably faster, but Tuffnut could be quite the sprinter when given the right incentive. Of course, "the right incentive" often turned out to be infuriated victims of the twins' pranks, rather than attacking dragons.

"Right," Stoick said dismissively, turning away from Tuffnut to look at Spitelout, who was standing near him. "How soon can we have our ranks ready to go into the forest?"

"Ten minutes," Spitelout replied. If there was one things Vikings knew, it was the art of war. They were a nation of warriors, their entire lives revolved around fighting, and quickly assuming assigned battle positions was something they were taught since they were children. Nothing was left to chance. These weren't unusual circumstances. Everybody knew what to do in case of a dragon attack.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, dad!" Hiccup stood up so fast that his chair actually toppled backwards. As usual when he did something unexpected, every single person turned to look at him. This time, he was too preoccupied about what was happening to care. "Let's not be rash about this," he appealed, looking at Stoick with a pleading expression. "I mean, after all, wasn't that the reason you postponed my duel with the nightmare? So that we wouldn't start my— our— marriage with a fight against a dragon?"

Stoick frowned at his son, his bushy brows burrowing together on his forehead. "That's different. The nightmare is captured, and even if you lost the duel, it wasn't a threat to the rest of the village. This dragon could attack us at any moment," he affirmed, several of the warriors around him nodding in agreement.

"Ah, yes, but we don't know that for sure, now do we?" Hiccup kept trying to dissuade them from taking arms. Or at least delay them, if she interpreted his next words correctly. "And, really, is it necessary for us to interrupt the party because of a mere assumption? It's not worth it, not when there's so much... food to be eaten, mead to be drunk..." He gestured to his surroundings, like he was hoping his hands would make their "wedding bash" sound wilder than it had been up to that point.

"It's not a risk we can take, Hiccup," Stoick replied firmly. "You'll still be married when we get back. The feast will still be here when we get back. We gotta deal with this now." He made a move to turn around.

Hiccup rushed to say something that would stop him, tripping over himself in his haste, at least until he grabbed a hold of the table to stabilize his feet. "But dad," he blurted out. Astrid looked on anxiously, because for a second it seemed like he hadn't even thought of an argument to make. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds for him to come up with something, she saw that in his expression. "Just— think about it. Tuffnut said the dragon saw him, right? But it didn't attack him. It didn't even give chase! What if— what if it _can't_?"

He looked at the curious faces around the room, trying to appeal to a sense of rationality most Berkians tended to ignore on a daily basis. "What if it... say, can't fly," he suggested. Stoick's eyes narrowed and for one furious heartbeat Astrid was sure he was onto them. Hiccup had said too much. And judging from the tension in his shoulders, he knew it, too. "Or, you know, run. Or just... move," he tried to fix it, albeit somewhat clumsily. That seemed to appease most people, although the Chief's eyes remained narrowed at his son. "I'm just saying, if the dragon's that sedentary, there's gotta be a reason. If it can't fly, then it can't attack us. Right?"

There was a pregnant pause as Stoick seemed to contemplate his son's arguments. It made sense, Astrid thought: they were all up in arms to take down the dragon before it could attack them, but if the dragon couldn't attack them, then they didn't need to take him down to begin with. Surely Stoick would see that it wasn't worth the effort...

But in the end, Vikings would be Vikings. "If it can't fly, it'll just be easier to kill," he sentenced. He turned around and toward the door of the Great Hall, the crowd parting before him to let him pass. "Everybody at the ready! We'll regroup in the north end in ten minutes," he bellowed in his loudest, most commanding tone, and the people rushed to do as he said. Soon enough everyone was making their way out of the room, leaving Hiccup and Astrid still standing in their place of honor.

With a frustrated groan, Hiccup leaned his weight on his hands against the large table, looking every bit like he wanted to smack his head against the wooden surface. Repeatedly. To his credit, he didn't; instead, he took a deep, albeit somewhat shaky breath, and looked at her over his right shoulder. "I've gotta stop them. You can stay here if you want, but I'm going after them."

He turned to walk around the table and toward the exit, but her hand grasped his before he could actually take a step. "Hiccup," she started, before even knowing what she wanted to say. She just knew she needed to say _something_. "I'm sorry," was what came out of her mouth next, as Hiccup turned to look at her again. "This is all my fault. Ruff told me Tuff used to visit that cave when they were little kids, I shouldn't have suggested it if there was a chance..."

He still looked tense, but his expression softened as he saw her genuine contrition. "It's not your fault. I mean, come on, this is Tuffnut we're talking about. Who would have ever thought that he would just come across the dragon we so carefully hid in the forest?" He shook his head. "You couldn't have known."

She nodded, conceding his point. "Maybe we should start giving Tuff more credit," she said, with a humorless chuckle. Then, with a resolute urgency in her step, she walked past him and started pulling him forward by the hand she still held. "Now come on, we gotta get Toothless out of this mess."

"You don't have to come—" he started as he felt himself move, most likely to tell her to stay behind again, but she wasn't having it.

"Don't even start with that. Didn't I already tell you that we're in this together?" she stated again, as authoritative as she could be, without looking back at him. How many times would she have to tell him the same thing over and over before he got it through his thick skull? Boys!

There was silence as they hurried down the steps of the Great Hall, and she wasn't sure if that was because he was worried, or because he was processing what she'd just told him. She knew it was the latter, however, when after a minute, he entwined his fingers more securely with hers, stepping up his pace so he could run beside her instead of behind her. She allowed it, biting back a smile— it was practical, to hold hands; they had to make sure they didn't lose each other in the commotion, of course.

They had to part ways eventually, however. Hiccup took off in a mad dash toward the cave, hoping he could push Toothless to fly off and away from Berk again, at least until things settled down. Astrid, on her part, was tasked with accompanying the mob and trying to get Stoick to see sense and stop the dragon hunt. It was no easy task: Vikings were stubborn enough on their own, and when they were in large groups, they fed off each other's stubbornness, making them a hundred times more hardheaded than they usually were. She could only suggest going around the cave and "attacking from the rear" (a route that would take longer and hopefully give Toothless a good head start) so many times before people started looking at her funny.

Fortunately for them, a horde of beefy, brutish villagers trampling through the forest was about the furthest thing from subtle there ever was. Berkians were efficient enough hunters, and great warriors, but stealthy they were not. She was sure all the noise they were making would alert Hiccup that they were close, if he and Toothless were still around. She was right.

Unfortunately for them, it also set Toothless immediately on edge. And to make matters worse, it happened in plain view of Stoick and the incoming Vikings.

"Hiccup!" Stoick boomed over the sound of Toothless' growling and roaring. "What the Hel are you doing?! Get away from that beast!" Hiccup, alarmed, exchanged a look with a wide-eyed Astrid, who was coming up behind Stoick and the rest. She recognized that the scene must look to them like Toothless was about to attack Hiccup, the young man's hands raised in a poor attempt to protect himself. She knew better, though; Hiccup had clearly been trying to urge Toothless to take flight, push him physically if he had to, but she knew from experience how futile it was to try and get the heavy reptile to move if he didn't want to cooperate.

Frantic, Hiccup rushed to stand between the dragon and the Chief. Toothless held his ground, growling lightly as a warning to the crowd, as he recognized the tense situation, but otherwise heeded Hiccup's request to stay back. "Dad, this isn't what it looks like," the boy tried to mollify the larger man's anxiety, but Astrid knew it was pointless as soon as she saw several of their warriors, carrying torches and well-honed weapons, move past the three of them and to the sides, some even starting to climb up the rocks and ledges that made up the foundation of the cave Toothless had been hiding in. She couldn't tell if Hiccup had noticed them, as well, focused on his father as he was.

She could almost hear Gobber's voice in her head, the words he told them one day during dragon training. _"If you come upon a dragon on the ground, surround it. Look for higher ground. They can fly, but they're not smart enough to expect an ambush from above._ [7] _And if you have numbers on them, they won't know who to attack first. Never engage a dragon on your own. Unless you're Stoick the Vast, of course!"_

Gobber had chuckled to himself when he added that last bit, but still, Astrid was nervous. Even Stoick the Vast had never gone against a night fury before. Not that Toothless would ever attack anyone without provocation, but if things escalated...

"Hiccup, get back here," Stoick sentenced gravelly when he saw that his son was not moving apart from the black dragon. It wasn't his father voice— it was his Chief voice. She saw him take a glance past Hiccup at all the warriors that were now almost in position in a circle around the three of them. He didn't move, didn't change his expression; he just looked at them, but Astrid knew there was some kind of signal there. A warning to get ready.

"No, dad!" Hiccup declared right back, determination steeling his expression. "You need to see this." It was a determination he rarely showed, and the murmur of the crowd around them seemed to confirm how surprised their fellow villagers were to hear that tone coming from him, but Astrid knew he had it in him. It was the same resolute determination he'd demonstrated back at the cove after their flight on Toothless, the one that completely changed her perception of him in what felt like an instant. She could only hope it had the same effect on the rest of the tribe.

Hiccup took a step back and stretched a hand behind him, toward Toothless. The creature almost stepped forward to nuzzle into his touch, but hesitated, big green eyes darting anxiously between the Chief and his son. Hiccup continued moving backwards, slowly. "They're not what you think they are," he asserted, eyebrows drawn together in a focused frown as he looked directly at his father. "We don't have to kill them."

Astrid watched him, breathless, as he moved closer and closer. His hand was just a few centimeters away from the dragon's nose when Stoick, apparently setting aside his momentary confusion, cut him off. "I said _get back here!_" he exclaimed, waving his hand to give the others the signal to attack. Unfortunately he signaled with the hand that was holding his hammer, and for a moment it looked like he was trying to hit Hiccup with it. She could see why Toothless reacted the way he did.

Everything happened almost too quickly for Astrid to comprehend.

Stoick lunged forward with his left hand stretched to grab Hiccup and pull him out of the way at the exact same time Toothless tried to jump in-between them with a threatening roar, and they tangled on the ground, the Viking trying to grab on to Toothless while the large reptile struggled against his hold. Hiccup got thrown several meters back, near Astrid, splattered onto a pile of dry leaves. Several Vikings in the circle jumped at Toothless from above, dropping everything they held onto the ground as they held onto tail, hind legs and torso, trying to keep the dragon still for capture. Sparks from their fallen torches flickered onto the carpet of dead leaves that had been brought down by the storms the previous week. And then the trees and the bushes and the grass around them were on fire.

She looked at Hiccup. He was up on his hands and knees, slowly shaking his head as if he was momentarily disoriented by the hard jolt and trying to clear his head. A medium-height pine tree near him was in flames, and one of the lower branches was teetering dangerously above his head.

Her heart went to her throat. "Hiccup!" she exclaimed, and looked around her in desperation. Grabbing the first thing she could find— Stoick's discarded hammer— she swung it as hard as she could straight at the tree, the large weapon spinning in the air before hitting the base of the engulfed branch. The force of the impact pushed it back, just a scant few meters away from Hiccup, but she gave herself no time to dwell on her good aim before she rushed at him, pulling him away from the spot by the ceremonial cape he was wearing.

It only took a couple of seconds for the bed of leaves Hiccup had just been standing in to light up, and she quickly dislodged the cape from around his neck to try and use it to smother the flames. But she didn't have time to complete the action, as she saw Hiccup finally regain his bearings and stand up, looking through flames at the spot where Toothless had just succeeded in throwing four Vikings off of him.

Stoick advanced on the creature. "Dad, no!" Hiccup exclaimed, for a moment trying to look for a way to get to them, but the fire was everywhere. "He won't hurt anyone!"

"Stoick, don't!" Astrid heard herself shout, but her scream was drowned by the battle cries of several other warriors who attempted to tackle the dragon and were promptly swatted away like flies.

"Dad, you'll only make things worse!" Hiccup kept trying, but the Chief wasn't listening, and when he attempted to jump at the dragon, Toothless pinned him to the ground with all his weight. "Toothless, stop!" Hiccup exclaimed, trying to make himself heard over all the noise, but it didn't work. The creature known for generations as the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself let out a mighty roar, and she could just see over the tips of the flames that surrounded them that there was a cloud of gas accumulating in his mouth—

"No! **_No!_**"

In the nick of time, Toothless heard Hiccup's plea, and held back. He straightened up, looking every inch the sweet creature she knew him as, and moved his head around, evidently looking for his rider. For a second, Astrid had the feeling that maybe things would turn out alright after all... but then several other Vikings jumped at the dragon, catching him off-guard and managing to pin him down with his jaw held closed, well away from Stoick.

"Oh, no! No, please don't hurt him—" She saw Hiccup start to walk forward out of the corner of her eye and she immediately moved to pull him back by force. Toothless' pained crooning broke her heart; she wanted to help him, she truly did, but she wasn't about to let Hiccup walk through fire in a fit of desperation. She had to hold him back.

Stoick stumbled to his feet, hair mussed from the fight. As he looked down at the creature, his bushy eyebrows drew together in a dark expression that was almost terrifying. "Arrange for a group to stay here and put out the fire," he told Spitelout, Snotlout's father, who was one of the men holding onto Toothless. "As for this..." he said, signaling to the dragon with a nod of his head, "put it with the others."

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] Because Vikings were explorers and seafarers and were often away from their homes, it often fell on the wife to run the household in their absence. This is a big part of why Viking women are now seen as strong and independent. In Astrid's case, with Hiccup being Chief, she would pretty much be his second-in-command. When Hiccup's absent, Astrid's basically in charge of Berk. You go, girl!

[2] Basing this off of Stoick and Valka's age relative to Hiccup's. Most Vikings were wed for the first time before they were 20 (HTTYD2 Hiccup and Astrid need to get on it, like, now!), because it made for good alliances between clans or even between tribes (since Stoick is Chief). However, Stoick is 30 years older than Hiccup, and Valka looks like she could be in her late 40's, so close to Stoick's age (Cate Blanchett is 45). This tells me they either: a) were each other's second marriage (there are no hints that point to this in the movies), b) got married later than most (doubtful, because _Chief_), or c) it took them a long time to have a child. The latter seems the most likely, and again considering Stoick is Chief, commonly there would've been some pressure from the tribe on the couple to produce heirs. Vikings had other... options, if the couple couldn't have a baby after some time. Since Stoick and Valka remained together even after a long time without children, I'm going to say the Berkians were pretty chill about it, and similarly Astrid likely wouldn't be pressured to have a child soon.

[3] One wedding tradition is for the groom (or the Goethi) to lay the groom's hammer or axe in the bride's lap (both have the same shape as Thor's hammer Mjölnir) and recite a prayer to Frigg, in order to bless the bride with fertility.

[4] Another (rather fun!) wedding tradition was for the entire wedding party to run from wherever the ceremony took place (usually a blessed grove) to the hall where the wedding feast would be held. Ideally the groom would win the race, and then he would block the bride from entering the hall so that he could lead her inside, making sure she didn't stumble over the threshold. If she stumbled, it was a sign of bad luck for their marriage. Good thing they didn't wear stilettos back then!

[5] The religious ceremony involved animal offerings to the gods or, possibly, sacrifices. Depending on which was the case, either water or the animal's blood would be collected in a bowl and blessed. Then a fir branch would be dipped into the bowl, and the couple and guests would be sprinkled with it. Between the two options, I went with water because... come on, this is a family movie, haha. xD

[6] Whoever can tell me where I got Tuff's little exclamation from gets a virtual cookie. ;)

[7] I learned this lesson from _Rurouni Kenshin_. Cheers, Yahiko-kun.

Hi, everyone! So here you have it, Astrid and Hiccup's wedding, going out in a blaze of... well, in a blaze. Haha. For better or worse, though, they're married now; there really was no getting out of it once the _handsal_ was done, so it had to happen. Hopefully you liked the progression of things. I'm really nervous about the way Astrid's feelings about it came through in this chapter, so please do let me know what you think! Was it too fast? Do you think her acceptance was accurate to her characterization? I'm literally biting my nails over this.

Once again I have to thank each and every one of you who has taken the time to review so far. The favs and alerts and kudos are nice, but nothing beats actually getting to hear what you think and interacting with you. I've gotten to learn some really cool things from your informative comments, and I really appreciate you pointing out what you like about this story and what I can improve on. So please, do review! It only takes a second and will make my week. See how efficient this is? :3

**In the next chapter:** Hiccup's confrontation with Stoick, a little soul-bearing with Astrid, and the start of a rescue mission. In the immortal words of Tuffnut Thorston: dragon riders, coming through! ;)

Remember to follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird) if you're in either social network! Sometimes I post snippets from future chapters and stuff. Until next Tuesday! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 7_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

Stoick practically dragged Hiccup all the way back to the village by the neck of his tunic; Astrid could barely keep up with his large strides herself. When the older man finally pushed Hiccup into the Great Hall (where one of the tables that had been set up for the wedding feast abruptly and painfully stopped his momentum), Astrid managed to get inside just as the tall doors were about to slam in her face.

"...Cavorting with one of _them_!" the Chief's voice boomed in the enclosed space as Astrid rushed to Hiccup's side and helped him regain his balance when he stood up from where he'd almost been embedded into a wooden stool. "So you were never really excelling in Dragon training, was it? You were just tricking everybody!"

"Look, dad, I should've said something before, I know, but I— I didn't even understand everything myself..." Hiccup tried to reason with the man, but Stoick had his back turned on his son, and didn't appear to be paying attention, as wrapped up as he was in his own anger. "But I know what's happening now," Hiccup continued, "and I just— If you let me explain, you'll see that Toothless didn't do anything wrong. Please, there's no reason to hurt him."

"Stoick, there's a good explanation for everything," Astrid tried to intervene as well, banking on the idea that two voices would be louder than one. "I swear there is. Just listen to what Hiccup has to—"

"And why should I?!" The Chief spun on his heels and towered over Hiccup with a dark frown marring his already gruff features and the weak sliver of moonlight coming in from the half-closed door making him seem even more dangerous. "Every time he opens his mouth, it's just to defend that— that— _creature_!" He shook his head forcefully. "Defend it over his own fellow tribesmen! Did you not see how many of them could have been killed because of you?"

"They were never in any danger from Toothless! He only reacted when he thought they would hurt _me_. And either way, nothing would've happened to them if you hadn't _led_ them there on a dragon hunt!" Astrid cringed when he said that. True as it was, it probably wasn't the best argument to raise when the Chief was already seething with anger.

Stoick's hands wrapped into fists at his sides, and for a second Astrid was afraid he might even smack his own son. "How can you ever stand here, in front of your father— your _Chief_— and defend a dragon?! They've killed hundreds of us!"

"And we've killed thousands of _them_!" Hiccup shot right back at him, without even stopping for a second to think about it. For one brief moment, under all the desperation to make himself heard, Astrid once again saw that determination she now knew very well. "It's a vicious cycle that has to end, dad, and the only way to do it is to _understand_ what's really causing this!" He shook his head, eyes fixed on his father as the much larger man paced in front of them. "They don't need to kill us, and they only steal our food because if they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves!" He ran his hand through his hair once again, with a sigh. "There's this... massive... thing... on their island that controls them, forces them to raid—"

Stoick stopped abruptly in his tracks and turned to Hiccup again. "Their island? You've been to the nest?! Tell me how to get there," he demanded.

Hiccup's eyes widened as he immediately realized his mistake. "No, dad, I— I can't. Only Toothless knows, dragons can hear some sort of— some sort of call. I couldn't find it again even if I tried—"

Once again he was interrupted as his words unwittingly gave the Chief a new idea. "Good thing we've got the blasted creature in the cages, then." He not-so-carefully pushed Hiccup to the side as he strode toward the doors of the Hall.

It didn't take long for both teens to understand what he meant to do. "Wait. Dad, no! This— this giant dragon, it's like nothing you've dealt with before. There's no way you can beat it, you'll be leading everybody into a massacre! Dad, I mean it, please don't do this!"

Up to that point Astrid had been mostly silent, her heart in her throat as she watched the two males scream at each other, her poor attempts at breaking the tension failing every time. But she knew, she _knew_, if there was ever a moment to speak up, it was this one. "Stoick, please. Hiccup is telling the truth; if you won't believe him, at least believe _me_. I've seen it, too. I was there the day Toothless took Hiccup to the island, and this giant dragon... it's too much. It's the size of a _mountain_, Stoick. It _eats_ other dragons. There's no way you'll be able to walk out of there if you don't know what you're dealing with—"

The Chief had stopped walking halfway through Astrid's speech, and for a moment she thought she had finally gotten through to him, but then he turned to look over his shoulder and she felt like his irate gaze was somehow a thousand times colder now that it was directed straight at her. "You were there with him? When was this?" His eyes widened as the answer came to him. "The night you were out until past midnight. You lied so that we would think something untoward was happening between the two of you!"

"What?" Astrid could feel the pit of her stomach growing cold, like a block of ice was starting to grow in her abdomen. "I've never lied to you! _You_ were the ones who just assumed—"

Stoick had now turned fully around and signaled at her with a threatening finger, effectively shutting her up. "You _deceived_ me so you could worm your way into the Haddock clan! Why, you little gold-digging snake—"

Now angry, Astrid took a step forward and was about to further defend her integrity when Hiccup intervened, extending an arm in front of her as if to halt her steps, and moving to stand in-between her and his father. "Stop it!" he exclaimed, steadfast and sharp over the previous sheen of desperation to his words. "You can yell at me all you want, but I won't let you badmouth Astrid. She didn't do anything wrong; her only fault was covering up for _me_, so you leave her out of this. We told you all over and over again that things between us weren't the way you thought they were, but you wouldn't hear anything but what you wanted to hear.

"It's already bad enough that you forced us into this sham of a marriage just because you refused to listen, but now you're doing it again and this time it's going to get people killed!" He took a step forward, the arm that was previously extended toward her now stretching toward his father. "Dad, I'm begging you," his hand landed on Stoick's massive forearm, soon joined by his other hand in a hopeful squeeze. "For once in your life, would you _please_ just listen to me?!"

The Chief looked down at his son for half a heartbeat before shoving his touch off him with such force that it knocked Hiccup off his feet and onto the floor. As Astrid rushed to make sure he was okay, Stoick spun toward the door again, his heavy cape rustling noisily with the heft of his strides.

When he got to the door, he paused, glaring at the two teenagers over his shoulder. "You've thrown your lot in with _them_," he all but spat in Hiccup's direction, and Astrid, who was holding him up into a sitting position, could feel his entire body tense up. "You're not a Viking. You're not my son." With that, he walked outside where presumably the rest of the tribe was waiting expectantly, and signaled loudly for them to ready the ships.

Hiccup didn't move for a long time, his every muscle taut like the Chief's parting words had paralyzed him. Until he finally spoke again, Astrid would've sworn he had been holding his breath for minutes. "They're all going to die," he croaked finally, his throat dry and his voice shaky.

Astrid didn't know what to say to that, so she didn't say anything.

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The ships would've set sail by now, Hiccup thought, upset. Dawn was fast approaching, and his father would've planned to make as much use of daylight as possible. Did they have Toothless in a cage? He wondered. Did they have him in chains? He'd had enough trouble getting even a much softer leather harness on him, so he had no doubt the poor dragon must be miserable by now. Hiccup was not exactly in chains, but he was feeling pretty miserable himself; it was only fair. He knew now that he couldn't convince his father not to do this, but he'd still wanted to go down to the docks and watch the ships disappear in the horizon. Mope in public, why not? He deserved the scorn of his fellow villagers, as this whole mess was his fault anyway.

However, that plan was thwarted when the Goethi declared (through Gobber's translation, of course) that with every able warrior setting off to destroy the nest, they couldn't afford to have the gods angry at them, and so the whole wedding rite had to be completed. Astrid and Hiccup were practically shoved into the Haddock hall, and the first six people who passed by had been pulled in as witnesses (actually, Hiccup was pretty sure one of them was a sheep [1]) for the bedding ritual.

Blessings were recited in haste, Hiccup was unceremoniously ordered to take Astrid's bridal crown off, and just as quickly as everybody had crowded in, they'd all flushed out [2], with word that there would be eyes on the house the entire night just in case either of them thought about sneaking out and attempting to stop the ships from sailing off.

There would be no consummation that night, and everybody knew that, but at least their obligations to the gods were complete.

He felt, more than saw, Astrid moving closer to him. Her hair was down as a wife should wear it only for her husband; she looked more beautiful than he'd ever seen her, and ideally tonight would be the perfect time to tell her that, but they were both so wrapped up in their gloom and guilt, that it wouldn't feel right. She sat down beside him on the bed— he could just see the bump of her knees under the white fabric of her dress out of the corner of his eye, hunched over with his forearms resting on his thighs as he was— and he heard her take a deep breath, releasing it in a sigh. "This sucks," she said, eloquently wrapping up the entire debacle into two words. "I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now. It's like in one day you lost everything. Your father, your tribe, your best friend..."

He frowned. Was she _trying_ to make him feel worse? 'Cause he hadn't thought that was possible, but she was doing an excellent job of it. "Thank you for summing that up," he quipped dryly, as he often did when someone pointed out his shortcomings. It probably wasn't the right moment for sarcasm either, but it was a hard habit to break.

The bed moved as she shook her head emphatically. "No, what I meant to say was—" She cut the phrase short, paused for a moment as if thinking, and started again. "What I'm saying is..." She stretched an arm in his direction, her hand taking hold of one of his, where they hung close to his knees. "...You still have a wife."

His stomach did that funny flip it did whenever she said something wonderful that he wasn't at all expecting. He looked down at their hands, how they were touching, and then lifted his gaze to meet hers, her blue eyes imbuing her words with utmost sincerity. Just hearing her say she was his wife was more than he'd ever dreamed of, but... He scoffed. "Please. Your parents arranged for you to marry the heir of the Haddock clan. You heard what my father said, he practically disowned me! I'm pretty sure that's more than enough for the contract to be declared null and void," he pointed out in a bitter tone.

"Don't you dare, Hiccup Haddock," she hastily pulled her hand away from his, only to use it to slap him in the shoulder. "I didn't say my vows to your father. I said them to the gods, and I don't intend to go back on them. And don't you even think of doing so yourself, or you'll be in for a world of pain, mister," she finished, eyes narrowing with a sharpness that made him cringe. There was the Astrid he knew, loved, and was deathly afraid of.

Her glare softened after a few seconds. "I'm serious, Hiccup. This whole thing is a mess, but we'll fix it somehow. And we'll do it together." She took his hand again, and this time he reciprocated the hold. "We're a team now, okay?"

His hand tightened around her, almost reflexively. "Fix it? There's nothing _to_ fix! The ships are already gone, they'll be at Helheim's Gate in just a few hours [3], and once they get there, they're toast. There's nothing we can do!" He exhaled in a despondent sigh, as if all the fight was squeezed out of him. "I should've just sucked it up and killed the dragon when I found him in the woods. Every other Viking in the archipelago would've done it."

Once more she shook her head, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear when it fell out of place. "Yes. The rest of us would've done it." She lightly caressed his hand with her thumb, coaxing his fingers to entwine with hers. "But I told you, you're different. And that's not a bad thing."

"It feels like a bad thing at the moment," he muttered under his breath, his gaze dropping down to the floor again.

"It's not if you had a good reason," she spoke decisively, as if it was law; her tone left him no room to argue. "So what was your reason? Why did you let Toothless live?"

"I didn't _let_ Toothless live, I just couldn't kill him," he retorted dismissively. It's not like it was the first time he failed at something Viking-y. In fact, most of his failures seemed to be of the embarrassingly public variety, oftentimes happening in front of the entire village. That was just the story of his life.

"I don't believe that," she refuted straight away.

"Why _wouldn't_ you believe it?" he snapped angrily, wrenching his hand away from hers to tug at his hair in a frustrated fashion. "It's what always happens, isn't it? Typical Hiccup. I was a coward, I was weak, I— I wouldn't kill a dragon!"

"You said wouldn't, not couldn't like you did before," she pointed out, and he almost groaned. Was she seriously going to argue semantics with him now?

"Wouldn't, couldn't, it makes no difference!" He dismissed her comment in an attempt to dodge the question. Talking about that day in the forest wasn't going to do Toothless, or his father's unwitting suicide squad, any good. "Why does this matter so much all of a sudden?"

"Because." And just as he was going to open his mouth to give her some sass about how "because" wasn't an answer, she pulled at his arm, bringing his hand back into the fold of her own, and he found himself looking straight into her eyes again. In the blue, he could see a mixture of emotions: the assertiveness he'd always known in her, frustration, even a little bit of anger, like his words had somehow offended her. But most of all, he saw honesty and empathy, and he couldn't look away from her if he tried.

"Because," she started again, when she knew he was giving her his full attention. "_You_ matter to me. And Hiccup," she tugged at his hand, "I want to remember what you say right now. _Please_."

He sighed, feeling his objections start crumbling down in a second. It wasn't so much the fact that she'd said please, but the fact that she wanted to know. His whole life, he'd had to deal with people rolling their eyes at him or condescendingly patting him on the head whenever he suggested something, some going as far as to consciously ignore him or avoid him whenever he came up with his more outlandish ideas. Hel, _his own father_ had outright refused to listen to him just a few hours ago. As far as Berk was concerned, he didn't matter; he never had.

Yet here was Astrid, someone he'd scarcely allowed himself to believe would ever even _notice_ him, reassuring him otherwise. Here was Astrid hanging onto his every word because she thought what he had to say was important. That it mattered. That _he_ mattered. And she mattered to him as well, so much. How could he ever refuse her?

"I..." he started, his mind's eye transporting him back to that one moment in the forest that changed his entire life. He looked down at their joined hands, unsure how to put those feelings into words; he wasn't even sure he understood the feelings himself, looking back on them. "He... he looked... terrified. He looked just as scared as I felt. I..." The words tumbled out, surprising even him. He'd never thought of it that way, but now that he was saying it out loud, he knew it to be true. [4] "I looked into his eyes... and I saw myself."

He raised his eyes to meet her gaze, and found that she was smiling at him, a sweet, satisfied smile, like he'd just said something she'd been wanting to hear. He tried to reciprocate, but couldn't manage to lift the corners of his mouth, because thinking of that day only served to remind him that Toothless was in danger— the whole tribe was in danger— because of him... and there was nothing he could do about it.

His hopelessness must have shown in his expression, because her smile faltered until she was reflecting his own despair. "He... he must be really scared now," she let out, her voice raspy, her tone uneasy.

And with that, Hiccup couldn't hold it in anymore. There were no tears; he didn't cry, didn't think he had the right to, but it felt like he was breaking inside. Unable to hold Astrid's gaze anymore, he leaned forward until his head was resting against her shoulder, and tried to choke the dry sobs down. He felt her wrap her arms around his shoulders, holding him tight, and felt her rest her face against his head. She didn't say anything, but he didn't want her to. Just being this close to her was enough.

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He woke up to a sunlight on his face; they must've fallen asleep at some point, sideways on the bed, and now it was dawn and the first rays of daylight were beaming down on him through his open window. They'd managed to get a couple hours of sleep, it seemed.

His face was nestled in the crook of her neck, a strand of her blond hair tickling his nose. Both of her arms were around him still, one supporting his head and the other around his shoulder. His own arm was hanging loosely around her waist. One of her legs was tangled with his.

Slightly embarrassed by the unexpected intimacy, he tried to pull away, but only managed to make her stir awake in the process. It made sense: fiercest warriors tended to be light sleepers. He froze in his fidgeting when her eyes opened and focused on his face. "Uh, hey."

"Morning," she replied in a husky tone that— unintentionally, he was sure— gave him the shivers. "How are you feeling?"

He was going to say "fine" out of reflex, but she looked genuinely concerned so he figured he shouldn't brush off her question. "Well... about the same, really." He didn't mean to imply that her attempts to comfort him last night had been for naught, but he'd be lying if he said the problem had just magically vanished. The reality of those longships currently making their way to Helheim's Gate still weighed heavily in his mind.

Thankfully, she seemed to understand. She nodded, and when her hair moved against his shoulder he realized he still hadn't let go of her as he had originally meant to. "Ah, uh, sorry," he said, pulling his arms away from her sheepishly.

She chuckled as she sat up, amused. "It's okay. You're allowed." The comment reminded him that no, it hadn't been a dream and yes, they were indeed married. Man, how many life-altering events had taken place in just one day? "I'm pretty sure they didn't leave us any food, so I'll go to the Great Hall and see if they've already started cooking," she said as she stood up from the bed. They'd slept with their boots on, he noticed.

She went downstairs, presumably to wash her face and get changed (he didn't know where they'd put her things, he hadn't exactly had time to ask after the wedding), while he sat there and tried not to brood. It was really early, with the sun just peeking out over the horizon; he hoped Astrid wouldn't bring a lot of food back from the Great Hall, as he wasn't feeling very hungry.

It wasn't just food she brought back.

"Soooooo," Snotlout started, with a not so subtle nudge of his elbow at Hiccup's ribs. "I hear you couldn't perform last night, Cuz." He shook his head, as if disappointed. "Guess all that sneaking around didn't help at all."

The twins snickered from the back. Astrid slapped her face against the palm of her hand with a groan. "I highly doubt the mood last night was conducive to a successful consummation, Snotlout," Fishlegs intervened, ever the mediator, trying to convey the idea that teasing Hiccup and Astrid about the lack of "action" on their wedding night was perhaps not the best course of action given the situation. Hiccup appreciated that.

"I only understood about half of that," Snotlout pointed out, smirking like he thought that made him sound wittier, and Hiccup rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying! It's no way to spend a wedding night, being all 'boo-hoo, my daddy took away my pet dragon.' If it were me, I still totally would've done it."

"If it were you, you wouldn't have made it to the marriage bed in one piece _to begin with_," Astrid pointed out, brandishing a threatening fist in Snotlout's direction. Then she turned to Hiccup meekly. "Sorry, Hiccup. I tried to shake them off, but they wouldn't leave until they saw you."

"You saw me yesterday," Hiccup reminded them, rather unnecessarily, he thought. He'd been locked inside his home for the entire night. What could have changed between then and now?

"Yeah, but now you're a married man! It changes things," Tuff commented. Given they already knew nothing had happened between him and Astrid last night, Hiccup didn't know how he was supposed to have changed, but apparently it seemed to make sense to Tuff.

"You still spent the night alone with your bride in your little love nest..." Ruffnut started, following Tuff's train of thought, but then she paused. "No, wait, they already had a love nest in the forest. Ooh, did I tell you that they had a love nest? They totally had a love nest," she pointed out to the rest, almost bouncing on the balls of her feet, and Tuff eagerly turned toward her, prompting her to dish out all the juicy details.

"_There is no love nest!_" Astrid all but exploded, and it was only by grace of Fishlegs standing between her and Ruffnut that she managed to hold back from jumping at the other blonde's throat.

Hiccup ignored the imminent outbreak of violence (one had to be used to that, living in Berk) and ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. "How can you guys even be gossiping about my wedding night right now? Don't you care at all that our parents are most likely about to be killed out there?" He saw them all slowly come to that sobering realization as they looked back at him.

"They're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard," Snotlout interjected, gamely trying to pretend that things weren't really that dire, but his attempt fell on deaf ears as the reality of the situation dawned on everyone.

"Is it really that dangerous?" Fishlegs asked in a small voice, clearly dreading the answer.

Hiccup looked at them, all of them more serious than he could ever remember seeing them, and knew that he couldn't lie. Astrid moved to stand next to him. "You didn't see that thing, guys. It was terrifying," she admitted. And coming from a clan famed for being fearless, they all knew that when Astrid admitted that something scared her, it meant a lot.

Hiccup nodded. "I... I don't think anyone's walking out of this one," he confessed, his throat drying up as it did every time he thought of what might be happening over at the nest. "And I don't know what to do. And even if there was anything we _could_ do, they're getting close to Helheim's Gate by now, and we're all the way here in Berk."

There was silence for a moment, with all of them quietly internalizing the gravity of the circumstances. That is, until Tuff spoke. "Man, if only we had wings like the dragons, right? Then we could fly there and help the fight."

"We could fly..." Hiccup mumbled to himself... and then he knew. "That's it! Tuffnut, you're a genius!" It was a stretch, a big one, but he had to try. With renewed energy, he split from the group and ran toward the back room, scrambling about for leathers.

The wooden walls around him muffled Tuff's response, but he still heard it clearly: "Of course I'm a genius! Wait, why am I a genius again?"

Ignoring Tuff's question and everybody's eyes on him, he made his way out of the back room and toward the main entrance, shouldering a medium-sized roll of leather skins. "What are you going to do?" Fishlegs asked, this time sounding more like he was curious rather than scared.

Hiccup paused in the doorway and looked back at the five of them. "Probably something stupid," he replied, half-shrugging a little awkwardly under the weight of the rope.

Astrid took a step forward. "Good, but you've already done that." She put a hand on her hip and smiled at him, as if daring him to elaborate. Had she caught on to what he was planning? He wouldn't be surprised if she had.

Her words reminded him of that conversation they'd had the day they were engaged, about the inherent weirdness of hiding Toothless in the forest, and the corners of his lips began crinkling up on their own. "Then something crazy," he replied. A full smile, three steps backwards and then he turned, running as fast as he could.

He thought he heard her say something else, but he couldn't place it, and it must not have been important as a moment later he heard her raise her voice: "We're coming with you! The rest of you go on to the kill ring!"

"Huh, what for?" That was Snotlout, of course, but whatever protests he was going to state must've gotten lost as the others started pulling him forward, and Hiccup heard several pairs of feet stomping off in the direction of the kill ring, and the dragons that were kept there.

He and Astrid headed off into the forest, to the cave where Toothless was captured the previous night. They were immediately hit with the acrid smell left from the fire, the soles of their boots sticking to a dark substance that was covering most of the floor of the place. One whole side wall of the cave was covered in scorch marks and burnt pieces of what looked like Tuff's ale barrels were strewn all over the place, which explained the sticky mess: they must have exploded during the fire. [5]

Hiccup moved past the disaster area, and was relieved to find Toothless' original tail rig right where he'd left it. The self-controlled one Toothless had been wearing had been destroyed last night in the commotion, but at least he still had this one. The stitching burnt off in the fire and what was left of the leather was looking scorched as well, but as long as the metal structure was still okay, he could repair it.

"What's this?" he heard Astrid ask, and when he turned around to look at her he saw she was holding something in her hands. It was a metal circlet of some kind, silver, with etched designs on it, but he didn't recognize it.

"It looks like a crown of some kind, but none that I've ever seen," he said, as Astrid handed him the object. "Do you think Toothless brought it here?" Hiccup was entranced. It might be from the mainland, or maybe even further south. Was it possible that Toothless had flown to uncharted lands and back to Berk in just three days? Wow. The places he must've seen. Imagine the potential for exploration...

"I don't know, it was just laying here on the ground..." Astrid moved to signal the place where she found it, but as she looked down, her expression morphed into a frown. It was then that Hiccup saw there was something else there, covered in mud and sticky goo. She probably hadn't seen it when she picked up the circlet, but from her expression she'd definitely noticed it now.

She crouched down to pick up the object, this time a thin strip of leather, studded with metal, that was much more familiar to both of them. "This is my _kransen_..." Astrid confirmed, somewhat in shock. The fabric was torn at the edges, like it had snapped unexpectedly. "Toothless must've knocked it off my head and stepped on it the day I moved him to the cave," she explained.

As she spoke, her eyes widened little by little, and Hiccup could see that something was dawning on her. "Toothless. He left Berk so he could get me a replacement," she said, pointing at the circlet Hiccup held in his hands. "He came back to bring me this. He got captured... because of me," she concluded, astounded and guilt-ridden at the same time.

Her logic made sense, and given Toothless' reactions the day he flew away from Berk, how he'd seemed almost alarmed at the mention of Astrid's name, Hiccup figured that's exactly what happened. Still, that didn't mean it was Astrid's fault. Not anymore than his, at least. "Hey... you can't think that w—"

She interrupted him with a harsh shake of her head. "We have to save him," she stated, leaving no room for discussion, but underneath her words there was a current of emotion. Astrid had truly begun to care for Toothless, just as he did.

He couldn't argue with that. Handing her the roll of leather, he picked up the tail rig and they ran back to town, toward the kill ring where the other teens were waiting for them.

Later on, when his fellow teens were already introduced to the dragons they would be riding and were in the process of getting used to the idea (and to the creatures themselves), Hiccup sidled up to Astrid. Having had some experience with Toothless, she was a lot more comfortable with her nadder, and it seemed to reciprocate, already nuzzling affectionately at the girl after only a few minutes of being acquainted.

"So," he started, already cringing as he opened his mouth because he knew she wouldn't like what he was about to ask, but he had to ask. It was the gentlemanly thing to do. "This... is probably going to be dangerous."

"Yup," she said, without looking at him, as she was busy petting and making cooing sounds at her new reptilian friend. He personally was completely fine with this; if she was only paying half-attention to him, she was a lot less likely to punch him.

He pushed forward. "And... there's a real possibility that we might die."

"Uh-huh."

He took a deep breath and braced himself for impact. "Are you _really_ sure you want to do this?"

She paused ominously in her ministrations to the dragon, and turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed and her jaw tense. "Would you like to try and stop me?" she asked him pointedly, and her tone was sharp like she was brandishing her axe at him.

Hah. As if he could. "Point taken," he gave her that one, as he knew from the beginning he would. At his concession, she seemed to relax momentarily, subconsciously rubbing her hand against the nadder's horn. "But Astrid," he started again before she could say anything, "if something goes wrong..."

_Like if I end up as dragon chowder for the giant Queen_, he wanted to add, but he didn't think sarcasm would work in his favor at the moment. Instead, he paused and looked at her, hoping to transmit with his expression every ounce of the earnestness he was putting into his words. "If something goes wrong, just get out of there. I'm not saying don't fight," he added quickly when it seemed she was about to protest, "I'm just saying... take care of yourself, okay? Please, this is important."

She studied him for a moment, as if carefully measuring his heartfelt request against her personal warrior code. For a second he wasn't sure which one would come out on top, but then she softened noticeably, and he knew she understood. "I will," she replied. "Just... promise me it won't go wrong."

If he could have made that promise, he would have. Oh, how he would've liked to promise her that. But he knew it wasn't up to him, so he said nothing.

Probably wondering why the pair had suddenly gone so quiet, the nadder turned its head toward Hiccup and nudged him with its snout. Its horn dragged locks of Hiccup's hair in the process, making it stand on end in a way that Astrid must've found very funny, because she laughed out loud. If it were anyone else he would've felt some indignation, but he really liked the sound of Astrid's laughter. Smoothing down his hair into some semblance of normalcy, he smiled, scratching the mischievous nadder affectionately under its chin. "They're amazing, aren't they?"

She grinned brilliantly at him. "All I'm going to say is," she ran a hand over the scales on the dragon's forehead, "best. Morning gift. _Ever._" The unbridled excitement in her voice made him laugh. They laughed together, until Fishlegs and Snotlout chimed in that they were ready and the twins had finally decided who would get which head of the zippleback.

And then they were off to Helheim's Gate.

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] I'm pretty sure I got the idea for this from Reens' story _The Choice_, so all credit for that joke goes to her. When I wrote this scene, I couldn't get the idea of a sheep witness out of my head, so I decided to leave it in for humor purposes. If you haven't read _The Choice_, I suggest you go do so right away! It's one of my favorite HTTYD fanfics ever, and definitely the strongest influence on this story as far as this fandom goes.

[2] Although the idea of a "public consummation" where witnesses had to actually watch the couple having sex is widespread in Viking-related fandoms (understandable because oh, the _drama_), it's actually not clear whether this custom ever took place. Certainly in the period in which HTTYD is set it didn't. Instead, the witnesses had to accompany the couple to their marriage bed, confirm that it was indeed the bride and groom there and not any kind of impostors, and then watch as the groom takes off the bride's crown (which was sort of a symbolic "deflowering"). After that, the witnesses left the couple alone, so at least that's a little less pressure on Hiccup and Astrid that night. Sometimes the bed linens were checked for blood the next morning, to confirm the _actual_ "deflowering," but not always, and given everything that happened that night, I'd say verifying the consummation/Astrid's virginity was low on the Berkian's priority list. As long as Hiccup didn't mind, nobody else had a right to complain.

[3] From the movie, I would say the Berkians were on their nest-hunting trip (the first one) for at least 8 days. I counted, because I'm a big nerd like that; it's a bit hard to tell, though, so I might be wrong, but that's the number I'm going with. Now, given the level of destruction they encountered on that trip, I'm going to assume it took them at least 2-3 days for them to recoup and salvage enough of their fleet/survivors to make it back home. So I would conclude that a round-trip to Helheim's gate would take the Berkians around 5-6 days, with at least 1-2 days spent on the way. However, there's no archipelago large enough in Scandinavia/Iceland/Northern Scotland that would require 2 days of travel at the fastest speed a Viking ship could reach, so I'm going to keep it on the low side of the range and say it takes them about a day to get to the nest. (Yes, I know this is fiction and I don't _have_ to adhere to real world geography if I don't want to, but *points to self* nerd, remember?). Since they sailed off during the night in this iteration of the story, this full-day or so is what Hiccup is referring to when he says they'll arrive "in a few hours."

[4] "HICCUP... I AM YOUR FATHER." ...Sorry, I had to. I'm a dork.

[5] Ale, which has about the same alcohol by volume as beer, is not considered flammable at room temperature. A substance catches flame because a certain amount of it is in the gas state, and this gas can ignite. In the case of room temperature ale there is not enough gas present for ignition. However, the higher the temperature of the ale, there more gas there is, and at some point it will be enough to catch on fire. (This is why you can get flames when cooking with beer, for example). Another important thing is that when alcohol is encased in a closed space such as a barrel, this gas will build up and increase the pressure inside the barrel, and this can lead to the barrel exploding. This is what happened inside the cave. Also, leather isn't really considered flammable like other fabrics, but it would burn, or at least get scorched, to a certain degree. (That is why burn etching of leather is possible).

Howdy, folks! It's Tuesday again, and here you have the second-to-last chapter of this story. I hope you liked it! From here on, they're off to fight the Queen and at that point things are going to go pretty much the same as they did in the movie (except for Hiccup having to put the old tail rig on Toothless again), so I'm not going to actually write the battle. The next chapter (which is the final chapter) will instead deal with the aftermath of it all.

Thanks so much to everyone who has left me a review so far. I'm thankful for the favs, alerts and kudos as well, of course, but nothing beats a review. I love talking to my readers so don't be shy, leave a comment! It helps me a lot to know what you liked and didn't like about this. What do you think of Tuffnut being both the one who revealed Toothless' presece and the one who gave Hiccup the idea for his rescue? Did you catch the nods I put in to Hiccup's explorer nature in HTTYD2? Did it make you "awww" that Toothless literally brought Astrid a crown? (HOW ADORABLE IS HE?) :3 Tell me in a review!

**In the next chapter:** Astrid has a realization, and Hiccup wakes up to a new Berk.

Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird) if you're in either social network! I post snippets from future chapters sometimes. See you next Tuesday for the finale! :)


	8. Chapter 8

**From One Misunderstanding**

_Chapter 8_

**Author:** Carla, aka cali-chan  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG-13 because making out.  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Adventure/Comedy/Romance.  
><strong>Pairings:<strong> Hiccup/Astrid, of course.  
><strong>Canontimeline:** Canon divergence, but it follows the general plot of the first movie. The deviation point is Hiccup and Astrid's "romantic flight"— namely, it takes a bit too long, and things just go downhill from there.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> I don't own _How To Train Your Dragon_ but I really wish I could. I also wish I could own a real, live dragon. I mean, how COOL would that be, y'all?! :D

**Author's note:** I'm not planning on actually typing out the Scottish accents phonetically. I don't want William Wallace to rise up from his grave to finish me off for desecrating such a crucial element of his culture. You'll have to use your imaginations, sorry.

**Summary:** What could be worse than being forced into marriage because of a misunderstanding? Well, having a Night Fury crash your wedding, perhaps. Canon deviation, HxA.

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><p>.<p>

Four days later, Astrid could be found sitting on a chair by Hiccup's bed, much like she had since that fateful day. One of her hands absentmindedly patted Toothless' head while the other one pulled her knees up to her chest. The dragon had been her permanent companion on her beside vigil, most of the time sitting back on his haunches with his head resting on the bed near Hiccup's feet. Foot. Thankfully Toothless was smart enough to know not to touch Hiccup unnecessarily, as any disturbance might set his recovery back.

He had woken up a few times throughout his convalescence, but he was in so much pain, he quickly blacked back into blissful unconsciousness. The adults were pretty certain he wouldn't remember any of it when he finally came to. But Astrid would. She could scarcely close her eyes without her mind conjuring back those awful, pained screams he let out. The way he thrashed about like something was clawing at him. The sight of the wound as she flew him back to Berk, trying really hard not to let the tears cloud her eyes and impede her navigation. The grave tone of the healer's voice as she told them she'd done everything that could be done for Hiccup, and all they could do now was wait.

So wait they did. It had been a long four days. Four days of uncertainty, four days of worry... four days of guilt. Theoretically she knew that there was nothing she could've done to stop Hiccup from facing the giant Queen on his own, and she probably wouldn't have wanted to, because it was his decision to risk everything for his tribe and she was so proud of him for that. But she wished his heroic decision didn't have to end this way. She wished he didn't have to suffer as a consequence of his bravery.

When she said she wanted something to happen that would give her an excuse not to be intimate with her new husband for a while, she didn't mean this. Was this her fault? Were the gods punishing her for refusing to consummate a blessed union? The logical part of her mind told her she was being silly, but at the same time the guilt wouldn't go away.

As if sensing her self-deprecating thoughts, Toothless turned to look at her with those big, round green eyes and crooned sadly at her, as if he sympathized. Astrid knew he felt as guilty as she did, probably more, and so she tried to show him that she didn't blame him, leaning toward him with a small smile and an energetic scratch behind his ear-flaps. They needed each other's support at the moment. Initially Stoick had wanted to leave Toothless outside the house, in the stables, so he wouldn't get in the way of Hiccup's treatment, but Astrid had set her foot down on that idea. Toothless deserved to be here by Hiccup's side, because he cared about Hiccup just as much as either of them did.

She was still cooing nonsense at the dragon when the door to the Haddock lodge opened and her mother poked her head in. "Astrid," she stated, with a small frown, "stop playing with the little beastie and come to the Great Hall. You need to eat, child." Astrid knew her mother wasn't quite used to the whole "dragons are our friends" thing yet, but it was a process. She'd gotten quite accustomed to Stormfly already, and Toothless was too much of a cutie to be afraid of, but a whole life of being cautious around the creatures just couldn't be erased overnight.

She let go of Toothless, the dragon moving 'round to the other side of the bed (probably sensing that Gertrud would be more comfortable that way) and Astrid pulled her legs up to her chest again. "I'm not hungry," she replied in a flat tone. It wasn't the first time she had said those three words in the last four days. "I'll eat later."

Her mother's frown deepened. "Come, now. You do the boy no good by starving yourself. Even the dragon has eaten!" she pointed out, signaling to the barrel Stoick had brought in a couple of hours ago, which had at one point been filled with fish that were now contentedly being digested in Toothless' stomach. Troubled for his rider as the dragon was, the instinct to eat wasn't something he could just ignore.

"I _said_ I want to stay here with Hiccup," she stated, enunciating her words more forcefully this time, as she knew it was the only way for her mother not to dismiss her words as just her being contrary. She wasn't moving from his side, hungry or not, and in any case she hadn't been lying: food was really the furthest from her mind at that moment, and she resented that her mother didn't believe her, even when it came to something so simple. "For once will you stop trying to force me to do something I don't want to do?"

She didn't look back to see her mother's reaction, but she heard her move fully into the house and close the door softly behind her. There was silence for a few seconds, and Astrid waited for the nagging to resume, but instead what she heard was a quiet "That's not fair."

That only incensed her more. "Oh, isn't it?" Abruptly bracing an arm against the backrest of her chair, she turned to glare at her mother. "Because from where I'm standing, it sure looks like I was the one being treated unfairly."

Gertrud, who was still standing near the door with her arms crossed in a distraught fashion, exhaled heftily and started walking toward her. The expression reminded Astrid of the disappointed sighs she would let out whenever Astrid and her brother were disobedient when they were little. It annoyed her because here she was, standing vigil over her _husband_, whom she had helped quite literally _save_ the entire village, and yet she was still being treated like a rowdy child.

"Look, Astrid," her mother started as she got closer, and Astrid steeled herself to rebuff whatever excuse was coming. "I know you're upset about the way everything happened, but we only did this with your best interests at heart. Our children are the most important thing in our lives, and since Hacksaw was taken by the gods, you are all we have." She extended a hand as if to touch Astrid's head, but she dodged it harshly. Although the mention of her brother hurt, as it always did, it wouldn't get her to cave. She needed her mother to admit they'd been wrong in forcing her to get married; that, and nothing else.

Gertrud pulled her hand back awkwardly, obviously getting the signal loud and clear that Astrid wasn't in the mood for affectionate gestures. She continued speaking, visibly miffed at her daughter's rebuttal, but she didn't back down. "You must know that all your father and I wanted was to give you a chance at a good life. We knew Hiccup would treat you well, otherwise we never would have—"

"I don't need a husband to _give me_ a good life!" she shot back, interrupting her mother. She still felt angry, but now she felt herself getting emotional. Feeling betrayed. Her mother knew very well marriage had never featured in Astrid's long-term plans. Her priority was to become a shieldmaiden, and anything else that came along the way was extra. And even if she _had_ wanted to get married, it wouldn't have been anytime soon.

She hadn't been ready; her mother _knew_ she wasn't ready. So why did they treat this way? "I've never been anything but a good daughter. I've been obedient, I've been helpful, I've honored the family. I have never given you _any_ reason not to trust me, my abilities, or my word."

Her mother's posture softened, and Astrid wondered what she must've seen in her expression that made that happen. She was trying to retort out of anger, out of offense, rather than letting anyone peek at the hurt hiding behind it. But there was not much to do about it now that Gertrud clearly had seen it, as she moved to sit on the edge of Hiccup's bed, facing Astrid directly. The girl spared a second to look at Hiccup, checking that her mother's movement hadn't disturbed his sleep, before turning back to the older woman.

Gertrud shook her head. "Astrid, of course we trust you," she began, sounding conciliatory. "And we know you can do anything you set your mind to." Astrid pulled her knees to her chest again, perhaps subconsciously as a way to add distance between them, since she was sitting and couldn't take a step back.

If her mother noticed, she didn't let it deter her. "My child," she raised a hand to her chest, covering the area where her heart would be. "You have always been... independent, and strong and... determined to be the best. To be at the top. And that's not a bad thing. It's not a bad thing at all, it's what we raised you to be. You're so far above all the other teens, and your father and I, we couldn't be prouder." The hand that was at her chest moved to rest on Astrid's forearm, which was wrapped around her legs, and this time the girl didn't shake it off.

"But..." Gertrud sighed again, this time more pensive than nagging. "Being at the top can also be very lonely."

She searched for Astrid's gaze with her own, and as soon as their eyes met, Astrid felt her tenuous hold on her indignation give away. She couldn't deny that was true. Since her brother died at sea, she'd taken on the responsibility of upholding his role in the family and his legacy among the tribe. She'd looked up at him so much, she was set on becoming the most promising young warrior of her generation, just as her brother had been. But even if her abilities had earned her the respect of the entire village, she felt like she was alone. She never hung out much with the rest of the kids her age because she was always so busy training, or helping her parents on their business. And even when she did have time to spend with the others, it was always weird because she felt she had to be the mature one.

She was friends with them but not in the ways that truly mattered. She never felt she could trust them with her problems, because her problems were her own to deal with; she always told herself she didn't need anyone to fix things for her. And whenever they talked to her about their own issues, it always seemed whiny and childish to her, somehow, something to roll her eyes at or ignore. She tried not to be mean about it, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel like she was better than them, just because she had her priorities straight.

It was only after Helheim's Gate that she understood that, as crazy as the other teens could be, she could trust them not only with her problems, but with her life. She didn't have to deal with everything on her own. And she never would have realized that without Hiccup.

Gertrud was still speaking. "You have to believe me when I say that all I wanted was for you to be happy. But I felt... if we didn't intervene, you might never have made this decision on your own." Astrid looked down at her knees, not knowing what to say to that, because she knew her mother made a good point. So what if she had never felt the desire to get married? Would that have been so bad? Maybe not, but did that mean she would never have allowed herself to love someone? Somehow, that sounded like a really awful life now.

And that's not to say she didn't want to be the best warrior on Berk anymore, because she did. Even on her own she would have made it, and she would've made a good life for herself, and she may even have been happy that way. But how much of that happiness would have been because she didn't know anything else? She wasn't so sure anymore.

Her mother was giving her a wistful smile. "Astrid... I'm so sorry that you felt hurt by anything your father and I did or said." The older woman gave Astrid's forearm a light squeeze. "But I am not sorry about where you've ended up."

Astrid nodded lightly, accepting her mother's sincerity for what it was. Her apology might have been a bit backwards, but she didn't want to be angry anymore. Her parents loved her and were proud of her, and that was all that mattered. At the moment, she had other things to worry about. More important things.

She turned her head to glance at Hiccup, who was still asleep in the same position, his even breaths not belying the struggle happening internally. "I think..." The words slipped out of her mouth almost on their own. "I think eventually I would've made the same decision." She met her mother's gaze with wide eyes. "Mom, I... I think I might love him."

All she had as a warning was a light cooing sound, and next thing she found herself engulfed in her mother's ample bosom, as Gertrud embraced her tightly. "Oh, my baby..." Normally Astrid would have protested, if feebly, at the sudden sentimentality, but at that moment all she did was grab onto the fabric of her mother's tunic and snuggle closer. Right now she could really use a warm hug from her mom.

"It's going to be okay, sweetheart," Gertrud whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "He's alive. That's all that matters. You'll pull through the rest." Pulling back a little, she softly pushed Astrid's bangs away from her eyes, and then shook her head. "That boy wouldn't know when to give up if Mjölnir [1] itself flew down from the heavens and smacked him in the head as a message."

She had used the tone she'd often used in the past when she was making some kind of disparaging comment about Hiccup's latest "disaster," and Astrid frowned at her, immediately assaulted by the now-familiar urge to defend him from criticism. "Mom!"

Gertrud chuckled at her annoyed expression. "I meant it as a compliment," she said with a smile, lightly patting Astrid's cheek. Letting go of her finally, she sat up and straightened her skirts. She gave Hiccup a quick once-over. "Right," she apparently decided that he was calm enough in his sleep that he didn't need any motherly care (read: fussing over). "I'll go over to the Great Hall, then. Bring you something to eat, alright?" She wrapped her furs a bit more tightly against herself as she walked toward the exit, preparing to walk out into the chilly night. "I understand if you don't want to leave his side right now, but a person can't live on love alone," she added as she opened the door.

Although Astrid could feel the cool breeze from outside seeping into the room, she felt her cheeks heat up. "_Might!_" she almost squeaked. "I said _might_, mom!"

Her mother waved her protests off with her hand. "Well, I never thought I'd ever hear anything like that from you," she quipped cheekily at her daughter, giving her an amused smirk, "so you've got to let me have this one!" And before Astrid could interject anything else, she was walking out of the Haddock hall, the door swinging closed behind her.

She stared at the spot her mother had vacated, still feeling her face burning up, but after a few seconds she shook herself out of her embarrassment and took a deep breath to calm herself down. Such was her relationship with her mother: even when things were okay between them, they always clashed to a certain extent. It was because they were so similar, she knew, and that was normal. But thank Frigg her father, at least, was sane. Else there'd be no peacefully living in that house.

Not that she'd be living with them anymore, of course.

She turned in her chair and, propping her legs carefully on the bed by Hiccup's arms, she looked at him once again. "You're lucky you're not awake," she spoke to him, in the same straightforward way she would if they were having just a regular conversation. "You would've been mortified."

She shook her head in a last show of annoyance at her mother's antics, but then she extended her hand and delicately brushed some strands of russet hair back from his forehead. "But don't take too long to wake up, okay?" She heard Toothless gurgle curiously from the opposite side of the bed. She turned her gaze to the dragon, gave him a hopeful smile and then looked down at Hiccup again.

"We're waiting for you," she whispered.

.

.

.

Hiccup first started stirring when he felt something tickle his face. Somehow, he didn't think it was Astrid's hair this time around... No, it felt more like heavy breathing.

_Very_ heavy breathing.

He struggled to open his eyes, dimly noting that his entire body felt sore and his head felt heavy— not like he'd been drinking too much heavy (not that he would know how that felt) but more like he'd spent too much time in bed heavy. He could hear some soft warbling, which should've clued him in, but he only figured it out when his still half-lidded eyes could adjust to his surroundings, and he found himself looking straight into the big green eyes of his reptilian best friend.

It was such a welcome sight that he couldn't help but smile. "Hey, Toothless." The dragon quickly moved closer, nudging him affectionately with his snout in what he interpreted as an excited gesture. "I'm happy to see you too, bud," he quipped as the dragon started licking his face. Unfortunately for him, Toothless was maybe a little _too_ excited to see him awake, as in his enthusiasm he leapt to land his front paws on the bed, and inadvertently stepped on Hiccup's stomach.

Well, that sudden stab of pain was just what he needed to wake him up fully!

It was as he was groaning in agony that his eyes and brain finally registered his current location. "I'm... in my house." He turned to look at Toothless, who was still looking entirely too sprightly for someone who had just stepped on an injured person. "Uhhh, _you're_ in my house." Toothless, of course, couldn't answer, but that didn't stop Hiccup from asking. "Does my father know you're here?"

The words were barely out of his mouth when Toothless started practically skipping around the room, jumping against columns and knocking down cooking utensils. Now, he could see that through his convalescence his bed had been moved downstairs, closer to the entrance and the hearth, and certainly this room was big enough for him and his father to lounge in, but it had to be noted that it was still remarkably small for a 10+ _skippund_ fire-breathing reptile.

"Oh, bud— okay, okay." The dragon had momentarily come up to nudge at him again for about a second, but before Hiccup could try and rein him in, the creature had already spun back around. Hiccup saw his intention and tried to stop him with a "No, no— Toothless!" but his attempt failed as Toothless was already climbing halfway onto one of the rafters. "Oh, come on," he groaned, and moved to get off the bed and try to call him down... and that's when he realized that something felt wrong.

Or more like something _didn't_ feel right.

He was suddenly flooded with a vague memory... he could remember his father telling him about this at some point during his stay in bed. It was one of a handful of times when he'd awakened briefly, but he had still been feverish and delirious, and now it felt like it had been a dream. But as he pulled the covers back to look down at his leg— or, really, what was left of it— he could see that it had clearly been real.

Noticing his sudden disquiet, Toothless jumped down from the rafter and moved closer to the bed, eyeing him warily and letting out a questioning murmur. Not knowing how to feel about this, Hiccup allowed himself a moment of confusion, sheer panic, sadness and who knows what else, before telling himself that he simply couldn't stay in that bed any longer. He had to get out of there, go outside where there was enough air for him to _breathe_, or he would go crazy.

He lowered his legs to the floor, the left one now capped off with a recently-attached prosthetic that squeaked when it hit the hardwood. Toothless leaned down to take a closer look at the peg leg before rising again to look closely at Hiccup. The boy could feel the creature lending him encouragement, and that made him all the more determined to do this.

He took a couple of deep breaths: one to pump up his courage, and another, which he huffed out through his mouth, to steel himself for the incoming pain. He grabbed hold of the bedpost and was about to push himself to his feet, when the main door to the Haddock hall opened and Astrid walked in. "What are you doing?" she asked as soon as she saw him sitting up.

He paused, looking back at her with slightly widened eyes. "I was just— I wanted to go outside. My back's sore from lying down." He paused for a second, noticing that she was carrying what looked like a small bowl filled with water and linen squares. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here, dummy," she countered, straight-forward as usual. She walked up to the bed, Toothless soundlessly moving to the side to let her pass. She put the bowl down on the chair he'd only just noticed was pushed against the wall right beside the headboard of his bed.

"Right," he replied. "Right, I knew that." Of course: the wedding. They were married. He did remember, though his head was still a bit fuzzy on some of the details... mostly it was the fact that he hadn't quite managed to wrap his mind around the idea yet. He figured that would take a while.

She sat down beside him on the bed. "You're not supposed to put your weight on it yet," she pointed out, probably something she'd heard straight from the healer's mouth. "Does anything hurt?" She laid a hand on his shoulder as she looked him up and down, like she was checking him for further injuries.

He shook his head. "Not really." Of course, there was the general soreness, but he didn't know if he'd call that painful. Apart from that... "I mean, my leg did throb when I leaned on it, but I figure that's normal, ri— ow!"

"That's for scaring me," she said.

Hiccup just stared at her, half wary and half in utter disbelief. She'd _punched_ him! He was injured! She'd just asked him if anything hurt, and he said no, and then she punched him in the arm! And now he hurt! Okay, so it wasn't _that_ painful, but was this the way things were always going to be with her? "Huh, well, I'm sorry that my falling to near-death into a huge ball of fire and having half my leg bitten off made _you_ scared—" She just rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm again. "_Ow!_" came the immediate cry.

"And _that's_ for the sarcasm," she stated, somehow making it sound like it should be self-explanatory.

Hiccup eyed her warily. "Wow, okay, if you're going to hit me every time I'm sarcastic, we're going to have a problem here—" But that was as far as his next witticism got, because then she grabbed him by the collar of his tunic and pulled him to her until they met at the mouth.

He promptly forgot what he'd been so intent on saying, as her lips started moving against his. It felt just as amazing and intense as it had been the previous time they made out, but without the frenetic urgency that had been so off-putting. She was taking her time, pressing against his lips in a caress, like she just wanted to feel him close for as long as she could. And he felt that way, too; it was enough to let him relax into the kiss, close his eyes and reciprocate with every bit of emotion he had in him.

When she pulled back, her lips were swollen and there was a pink tinge to her cheeks. She was a bit out of breath, as was he, and she looked so pretty it took him a few seconds to gather his thoughts again. "What—" he cleared his throat, "what was that for?"

She just looked at him for a couple of heartbeats, and he wasn't sure what she was thinking, but then she smiled, and it was brilliant. "Because I'm allowed." She chuckled. "Are you complaining?"

He almost snorted. Please, as if he would ever complain about being kissed by Astrid Hofferson. "Nope, no complaints from me," he quipped. He thought he heard Toothless' throaty laughter sounds from somewhere in the room, but he wasn't about to dignify that with a response.

Astrid stood again, and for a second Hiccup was about to object to her leaving, but she only moved to the opposite side of him and signaled for him to give her his hand. "Come on. You wanted to go outside, right?" she offered. "The healer said you shouldn't try this on your own yet, but I can imagine you must be feeling a bit stir-crazy by now."

He looked at her extended hand, knowing that she wanted him to brace his weight against her so he could make it all the way to the door. He wanted to, because he really did feel like he needed to go outside, but at the same time he was hesitant. "Oh. Um, you don't have to do this, you know. I was thinking of just— leaning against Toothless..."

"You still will," she said, just as the dragon came back from whichever corner of the room he'd been hiding in to stand on Hiccup's left side. "One arm around my shoulders and one on Toothless' head. You'll have enough leverage to hop on your good foot if you have to."

Now Toothless was also looking expectantly at him, and Hiccup didn't know how to say no when the two of them ganged up on him. He tried to explain it as best he could, however. "Astrid, this isn't— it's not necessary. I can do this with just Toothless, really. I just, I don't—" He sighed. "I'm not _useless_, okay?" he finished with a cringe. He hadn't been called by that old nickname in a while, but that didn't mean it didn't still sting.

His tone caused the large reptile to cock his head to the side, as if uncomprehending. Astrid's expression, on the other hand, changed quickly from hopeful to frowning down at him, arms crossed. "Seriously? Do you want me to hit you again?"

"Nooooo," Hiccup replied immediately, knowing that she would if he exasperated her enough. Although if that punch was followed by another kiss, he might not mind as much.

"Then stop it with the pity party," she shot back sharply. She scoffed. "I mean, think about it: if every person on Berk who lost a leg or an arm was useless, how many useful people would be left?" He had to admit she had a point: nearly a quarter of Berk's population had suffered maiming of some sort during dragon raids and none of them had let it stop them from living their lives to the fullest and being the fiercest warriors he'd ever seen.

On the other hand, he'd only been dealing with the loss of his leg for about fifteen minutes, so maybe she could give him a little leeway on the whole adjustment process? But before he could say any of that, she snorted. "Besides, don't think for even a second that this is going to get you out of doing chores. You still have three and a half perfectly good limbs left, and I can't sew to save my life."

It struck him as hilarious that the girl who could do anything she set her mind to, hadn't yet perfected something as basic as sewing. Now, Hiccup may not be an expert himself, but years of working with leather in the forge had given him some experience at handling cloth. Who would've thought there was something he was better at than she was? "Oh, man. That's a deal breaker. Is it too late to send you back to your parents'?" he teased, laughing too obviously to ever try to pass the question off as serious.

She glared at him through narrowed eyes, but she was holding back laughter, so he knew she wasn't really offended. "Okay, okay, I'll do the sewing," he conceded, glad that the mood was lightened momentarily. Were they flirting? Is that what they were doing? He kinda liked it. But still, he meant what he said before. "I'm sorry. It's not that I don't want your help, it's just that... I don't want to be a burden. I can do this on my own. I can."

With a sad sigh she uncrossed her arms and crouched down, so she could look slightly up at him, instead. "Yes, you can. But you don't _have_ to," she told him in a soft tone. She cupped his cheek lightly. "Hiccup, we're married now. That means we have to have each other's backs. You support me, and I support you."

He could see that she meant it, and it touched him somewhere deep. "I know," he said with a nod of his head. She had said it before: they were a team. And he wanted to believe it. "I just..." He didn't want to bring her down. He would get around this. They'd be alright. "I didn't think that would be quite so literal," he finished, and although there was still some apprehension in his words, the irony was enough to make them both laugh again.

She was still chuckling when she stood up again, grabbing a hold of his right arm. "Now come on. You've been cooped up in this room for almost a week, you must be dying to go outside." She put his arm around her shoulders and Toothless took his position on his left, both of them holding Hiccup's weight so he could stand up straight enough to move forward.

As they moved slowly to the exit, thankfully without him faltering too much, Hiccup asked: "I've been out of it for a week?" It only now occurred to him that he hadn't asked what had happened after the battle at Helheim's gate. The last thing he remembered was killing the Queen, and most of his fellow tribesmen had been alive and well by then, but the knowledge that dragons weren't _all_ bad had just been imparted to them in a rather blunt and hands-on manner. He had no idea what the aftermath to that had looked like.

He figured, from Toothless' presence in his house, that his father had at least warmed up to the creature's presence, but he hoped he hadn't gotten his friends in any kind of trouble. "Is everybody okay? How did the adults react to... everything?"

"You'll see," Astrid said cryptically as they reached the door.

She grabbed hold of the handle and pulled toward her, so that it opened to the usual view of the main square that Hiccup had known since as far as he could remember. Well, you know, except for the head of a live monstrous nightmare that had just roared its way into his field of vision from the left. "Watch out!" he exclaimed, and lunged forward, uncaring of his injury as he pushed his whole weight against the door to close it opposite Astrid's pull.

"You do know this door is made of wood, right?" Astrid quipped dryly.

Intellectually he understood that, but the sudden déjà-vu was hard to ignore. It was a reflex reaction. Just like how he knew nightmares weren't truly dangerous, but he still felt a shiver run through him when he saw it. "Why is there a nightmare loose on the town?" he asked instead, because everything else he thought to say sounded increasingly ridiculous.

She chuckled again at his expression, very much looking like she knew something he didn't. Which, considering he'd been floating in and out of consciousness for almost a week, she probably did. "I'd be more worried about the person _on_ the nightmare, if I were you," she commented. "I'm not sure Berk can handle a Snotlout on the loose, especially if he's riding a dragon."

"Snotlout?" Hiccup was about to ask something else, but he was distracted enough that Astrid could pull the door back, and there was, indeed, Snotlout, calling out for their friends while riding the red nightmare that he was supposed to fight in dragon training not too long ago.

As the duo flew right past him, followed by Fishlegs on his gronckle and the twins on their zippleback, Hiccup noticed that was obviously not the only thing that had changed in Berk in the last week: there were nadders preening on the roofs of almost every cabin, one of the signal torches had been set in the middle of the square to act as a feeding pen full of fish, and... was that the Goethi petting a flock of about a dozen terrible terrors? Sure looked like it.

"Am I dead? Because I'm pretty sure this can't be real life," he asked, more to himself than to anyone else in particular. Astrid shook her head, amused, as they took a few more steps forward until they were fully out of the hall.

He heard a deep, rumbling laughter coming from the side and turned to see his father approaching. "No, but you gave it your best shot," he said, patting him affectionately on the head. The larger man smiled down at Astrid and she smiled back at him, so Hiccup figured his father had apologized for the way he treated her the night of the wedding. He was glad.

"So, what do you think?" Stoick inquired, signaling to the new changes in their way of living. Toothless skipped off down the hill, to give the three of them some space. Hiccup lowered his arm from around Astrid's shoulders, finding that he could keep his balance well enough without his leg hurting too much. Her arm remained around his waist, though, and he liked it that way.

That was around the time when the rest of the villagers realized he was up and out of the house, and everybody came up the hill to greet him, cheer for him and thank him for everything he had done. Gobber handed him a new version of Toothless' prosthetic tailfin, and Hiccup felt like, for once, all was right with the world. Despite the sacrifices he had to make to get to this point, it was the most amazing feeling: his father being proud of him, his tribe finally accepting him, and Astrid by his side, supporting him. Now all that was missing was his best friend.

As if on cue, the cry came from behind him: "Night fury!" Followed immediately by: "Get down!" Guess he wasn't the only one having trouble shaking off old reflexes, but he couldn't see where the exclamations came from, as suddenly Toothless was leaping over everyone's heads (and innocently sending his uncle Spitelout careening into the ground, he noticed with amusement) in his eagerness to get to him. Nobody minded too much.

Once most of the crowd dissipated, the other teens, now having left their dragons in the feeding stations, approached them, bursting with excitement. "So, when are you cleared by the healer to fly on Toothless?" Fishlegs asked, clearly still not over the novelty of being able to fly on the backs of dragons.

"Yeah, we have to race so I can show you who the fastest dragon on the island really is," Snotlout added in his usual arrogant way, once again doing the "pointing to himself" thing that always made Hiccup roll his eyes. This wasn't an exception.

"I haven't asked, but it might take a few weeks," he said in response to Fishlegs' question. He didn't want Toothless to be grounded for too long, however, so he probably would have to teach Astrid how to work the pedal— he had to look it over, he wasn't sure what modifications Gobber had made for his new prosthetic leg— but it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

"Hopefully not too long," Ruffnut said, coming up close to him... _way_ too close for comfort. "You have to teach us all your tricks so we can be better riders," she said, laying a hand on his arm, and Hiccup thought she might've meant that as a suggestive comment, but really all it made him feel was the urge to cringe.

Fortunately for him, Astrid not-so-gently pulled Ruff away by the closest part of her she could hold, which just happened to be one of her braids. "Hands off, he's mine," she said cuttingly. As Ruffnut stumbled back and tried to regain balance, everyone who was still around— including his father and uncle, who had been standing to the side talking tribe business and whom he didn't think had been listening to their chatter— turned to look at Astrid with raised eyebrows. Never had anyone heard her express such possessiveness over anything that wasn't a sharp weapon. Even Hiccup himself was once again wondering if it would turn out he wasn't really awake and this was just some fever dream; not that that stopped the tips of his ears from burning red.

Suddenly noticing everybody's eyes on her, she seemed to realize what she had just said, and her cheeks immediately went pink. "_Married!_" she all but squeaked through clenched teeth, clearly flustered by her slip. "I meant to say he's married!"

"_And_ he's hers," Tuffnut interjected from the side, then went on to laugh loudly at his own joke. Halfway through a guffaw he cut himself off with a pained "gaaah!" as someone kicked him hard on the shins. No one actually saw who it was, although either of the girls were likely suspects.

"Okay, fine," Ruffnut acquiesced with a petulant sigh, just as her brother bent over to cradle his leg while muttering something about how he was very much hurt. "You can have him. I prefer my men to have beefier arms, anyway." No one commented when Snotlout started outright flexing his muscles and Fishlegs made a not-so-discreet attempt to measure the circumference of his biceps with his hands.

"Whatever, so are we going to go flying or what?" Tuffnut intervened again, when his moaning about his leg ceased. Hiccup could sense that all of them were eager to go back to their dragons, and in all honestly, although he couldn't fly himself, he really wanted to see with his own eyes how closely the misfit band of teens had actually bonded with their respective reptilian partners over the past week.

"You guys go. Hiccup and I will go down to the square by the feeding station and we'll watch you guys fly by," Astrid suggested, knowing that's what he would've wanted. Now that she was paying attention to him, she really could follow the way he thought, somehow, and it never failed to amaze him.

Snotlout responded to that with a snort. "Oh, come on. Are you two going to be one of _those_ couples that can't stand to be separated even for one moment?" He said the word "those" like it was an insult, and then he shook his head, like he was disappointed in them. "That's just sad."

Hiccup sighed. "Snotlout..." he started, ready to explain that it had nothing to do with them being married and more with the fact that he couldn't fly, so Astrid was just doing what any other nice person (which was a concept that might escape Snotlout's limited understanding) would do and giving him some company while the rest of them had their fun.

That was what he intended to say, at least, but couldn't as Astrid beat him to his reply. "Don't pay attention to him, Hiccup. He only _wishes_ he could have something like that." And then she cradled his jaw— gently, so as not to upset his balance— and leaned forward to kiss him boldly. Right in front of their friends, his father, and in plain view of the entire town square.

Not that he minded. "Yeah, I could get used to that," he said, in a bit of a daze, when they separated. He could hear catcalls and whistling from some of the villagers, his father was laughing and patting his shoulder in a proud manner, and even his uncle was rather, uh, creepily approving. [2]

Snotlout was already huffing his way down the hill, followed by Tuffnut, and with Fishlegs hurrying a few steps behind and seeming somewhat flushed. Ruffnut followed them a bit more leisurely, turning around every few steps to give them a thumbs up or to throw a "Yeeeeh, go Astrid!" their way. It was a little embarrassing, but in a good way. He looked at Astrid and she looked at him, and her arm was around his waist and they were both laughing, and despite his leg, it felt right.

Toothless nudged at his side. "Yeah, yeah, bud, I got it." Hiccup scratched him lightly on the head, then turned to look at Astrid again. "Down to the square, then?"

She nodded, content. "Sure. We'll find somewhere to sit. I've gotta formally introduce you to Stormfly, anyway." She took his arm and put it around her shoulders, allowing him to adjust until he had good leverage. Toothless got in position under his other arm. "Just hold onto us."

Hiccup took a deep breath of crisp Berk air, not to steel himself for pain but because it felt good, really good, to be where he was right now. He let it out slowly, and smiled. "Of course."

**THE END.**

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**Author's notes!—**

[1] Mjölnir is Thor's hammer, pretty much the most feared weapon in Norse mythology. It was made by a pair of goblin brothers, with a shorter handle than most hammers have because Loki distracted the goblins while they were making it. Because of the shorter handle, it can only be wielded with one hand. The goblin brothers wanted to prove they could make the best weapon, so they gave it to Thor, telling him he could smite to his heart's content and it would never fail, he could throw it at anything and it would never miss, and that it would never fly so far that it wouldn't return to his hand. It's known that some Vikings used to wear T-shaped pendants representing Mjölnir; sometimes these are confused with inverted Christian crosses.

[2] In the movie you can just see the lower half of Spitelout's face behind Hiccup after the kiss... it always struck me as a serial killer type of smile for some reason, hahaha! xD

So here it is, guys! The final chapter of _From One Misunderstanding_. I really hope you liked it. I'm sorry this is a day late— was a bit too busy and started editing the chapter way too late— but hey, it's not often that I actually finish a WIP (I'm a horrible person, I know) so I'm really glad this one will be marked as complete! Of course, it's also a bit sad because I loved this story, but all's well that ends well, and I hope I did justice to the HTTYD story by coming full circle.

Thank you thank you thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed this story. The favs, alerts and kudos are lovely, as well. I'd love to thank each and every single one of you directly, so don't be afraid to leave a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter and of the story in general!

A few of you have asked me if I'll be continuing with a follow-up story to FOM... well. I may or may not write a sequel, depending on if I figure out how the plot of HTTYD2 would change with a married Hiccup and Astrid. I've had some ideas, but nothing concrete yet, so I can't promise anything. If I ever do decide to write a sequel, however, I'll definitely make a note of it here, so be sure to add this story to your alerts/bookmarks!

You can also follow me on Tumblr (girls-are-weird) or Twitter (girls_are_weird) if you're in either social network! Those are probably the first places where I'd make any announcements. Thank you all so much for joining me and supporting me on this ride. You guys are awesome. :)


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